Prolonged retention of intrauterine bones.

Two cases of prolonged intrauterine retention of fetal bones are presented to show that antecedent abortion may, though uncommonly, play a role in current gynecologic complaints. In these two cases, symptoms dated to antecedent abortions treated with D&C 13 years and 14 months before diagnosis, respectively. Complaints included secondary infertility, dysmenorrhea, and dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Hysteroscopy was necessary to make the correct diagnosis of retained fetal bones. In both cases, hysteroscopic surgery was unsuccessful in removing all the bony fragments or relieving symptoms. Though retained fetal bones are an uncommon cause of gynecologic problems, these cases show the necessity of hysteroscopy for diagnosis of persistent gynecologic problems when intrauterine pathology is suspect. These cases also demonstrate that although hysteroscopy is extremely useful diagnostically, it may not be successful therapeutically even for the persistent surgeon.