Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine A calcium-encased foetus that occurs in ectopic abdominal pregnancies when the foetus dies and is not reabsorbed by the maternal body, whereby the maternal system encases the foreign body (foetus) in calcium to isolate it.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek λίθος (lithos, "stone") + παιδίον (paidion, "little child").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lithopedion.

Examples

  • Believe it or not, forming a lithopedion is a best case scenario.

    The Well-Timed Period 2009

  • A lithopedion is a rare phenomenon with only a few hundred cases report in the medical literature.

    The Well-Timed Period 2009

  • Seriously, does he really think that crap is cool? lithopedion said

    PodCastle » Welcome! 2007

  • The Rothschilds and University of Texas at Austin archaeologist Leland Bement have recently identified a 3,100-year-old lithopedion case at the Bering Sinkhole site in Texas.

    Origins of Syphilis 1997

  • But Bruce Rothschild, who has examined the Costebelle skeleton, contends that it is not a case of congenital syphilis but of lithopedion.

    Origins of Syphilis 1997

  • Fetal skeleton from Costebelle, France, has been claimed to show effects of congenital syphilis but may be an example of lithopedion.

    Origins of Syphilis 1997

  • According to Bruce Rothschild the lesions in the Costebelle case indicate lithopedion.

    Origins of Syphilis 1997

  • Israel Spach, in an extensive gynecologic work published in 1557, figures a lithopedion drawn in situ in the case of a woman with her belly laid open.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • In the writings of Albucasis, * [115] during the eleventh century, extrauterine pregnancy is discussed, and later the works of N. Polinus and Cordteus, about the sixteenth century, speak of it; in the case of Cordseus the fetus was converted into a lithopedion and carried in the abdomen twenty-eight years.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • Israel Spach, in an extensive gynecologic work published in 1557, figures a lithopedion drawn in situ in the case of a woman with her belly laid open.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A "stone child"; a rare abnormality where a developing fetus becomes calcified.

    July 9, 2008

  • Feels like it would be devastating when used metaphorically.

    March 25, 2024

  • If a bit ewww.

    March 25, 2024