Morphology and growth of the fetal stomach.

To assess the development of the fetal stomach, we performed 162 esophageal injections of contrast media into spontaneously aborted normal fetuses from 7.5 to 26 weeks of gestation. The length of esophagus and trunk, greater and lesser curvature, and vertical and oblique axis of stomach were measured, and the means and standard deviations at each gestational age were calculated. The most frequently encountered patterns of stomach shape were: the standard shape, 90%; steerhorn, 3%; and horizontal stomach, 2%. The final shape of the stomach is not assumed at least until the the age of 22 weeks. Regarding the growth of stomach, with age, the greater curvature grew at a much faster rate than the lesser curvature, and the distance between skin and outer border of the stomach increased. The oblique axis of the stomach did not rotate after eight weeks; gastric surface area showed the fastest growth after 14 weeks. The gastroesophageal junction cephalad relative to the trunk ascended through week 25, due to the differential growth of the trunk and esophagus.