A 30-year-old mother from Kolkata, who suffered life-threatening bleeding following a miscarriage, has been given a second chance at life and motherhood thanks to a pioneering intervention at Manipal Hospital, Mukundapur. Doctors successfully performed a rare, minimally invasive endovascular procedure that not only controlled her severe bleeding but also preserved her uterus – sparing her from a hysterectomy.
The woman, already mother to a five-year-old child, was 22 weeks into her second pregnancy when she suffered a miscarriage and was rushed to the hospital’s emergency department. Doctors discovered that while the foetus had been expelled, the placenta remained abnormally attached to the uterine wall – a rare and dangerous condition known as Placenta Accreta Spectrum (PAS).
Placenta Accreta Spectrum (PAS) is a rare but increasingly reported pregnancy complication in which the placenta attaches too deeply into the uterine wall. In normal pregnancies, the placenta detaches after childbirth. In PAS, however, the placenta becomes abnormally adherent (accreta), grows into the uterine muscle (increta), or even penetrates through the uterus into nearby organs (percreta). This can lead to massive, uncontrolled bleeding during delivery or miscarriage.
Traditionally, many PAS cases require hysterectomy to save the mother’s life, but minimally invasive techniques like uterine artery embolization are offering new hope for fertility preservation.
In the case of this patient, it was specifically placenta increta, where the placenta penetrates deep into the uterine muscle.
Attempts to remove the placenta triggered uncontrolled bleeding, a medical emergency that often leaves doctors with no option but to remove the uterus. The team first stabilized her using a balloon tamponade – a temporary measure to arrest bleeding – and confirmed the diagnosis with an urgent MRI.
Instead of resorting to open surgery and hysterectomy, the hospital opted for a newer technique: Bilateral Uterine Artery Embolization. In this procedure, doctors guide a thin catheter into the uterine arteries and block blood flow to the placenta, causing the bleeding to stop without cutting into the abdomen. No general anaesthesia was needed, and recovery was far quicker.
Within two days, the patient was stable enough to be moved out of the ICU, and she was discharged from the hospital in just five days.
Dr. Partha Pratim Samui, Senior Consultant and In-charge of interventional radiology at Manipal Hospital, Mukundapur, who led the procedure, said the case highlights the life-saving potential of embolization in critical obstetric emergencies. “This young mother came to us in a very critical state, bleeding heavily after a miscarriage. By using a minimally invasive embolization procedure, we controlled the bleeding without major surgery and preserved her uterus. This means she still has the chance to have children in the future. For us as doctors, nothing is more satisfying than giving a young woman hope for tomorrow,” he said.
This is the first successful case of its kind at Manipal Hospital, Mukundapur, marking a significant milestone for advanced maternal care in eastern India. The hospital emphasized that such minimally invasive techniques are critical in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality – particularly in complex pregnancies involving placenta complications.
As per doctors, risk factors for PAS include previous caesarean sections, uterine surgeries, and multiple pregnancies. Studies suggest that the global incidence of PAS has risen nearly fourfold in the past few decades, largely due to the increase in caesarean deliveries.
