PURPOSE: to report three cases of gestational trophoblastic disease with intense hemorrhagic complications, in which exceptional surgical procedures were used to obtain hemostasis. METHODS: the study comprised three patients: the first, a young woman, 27 years old, nullipara, was submitted to total abdominal hysterectomy and, thereafter, to chemotherapy until remission was achieved. Another patient bled from an extensive vaginal metastasis that could only be treated with hypogastric arterial ligation. Definitive sustained remission was obtained after chemotherapy. Two years after the episode, the patient achieved a new, normal pregnancy. The third patient, with persistent trophoblastic disease, presented a mass of molar tissue within the uterine inferior segment and cervix, extending to the right vaginal cul-de-sac, heavily bleeding at each attempt of surgical removal, whether by sharp or suction curettage. As a consequence of the invasive maneuvers she became seriously infected with sepsis; although being submitted to intensive antibiotic therapy and total abdominal hysterectomy she died a few days later. RESULTS: of the two patients who were submitted to total abdominal hysterectomy, one survived and the other died of septicemia. The third patient, who was submited to hypogastric arterial ligation, had a favorable outcome and achieved a new and normal pregnancy. CONCLUSION: albeit gestational trophoblastic disease usually has an undisturbed course and spontaneous remission, unexpected complications may demand radical approaches leading sometimes to unfavorable results.
Gestational trophoblastic disease; Hemorrhagic complications; Chemotherapy
