Fetal demise due to cord entanglement in the early second trimester.

In this report, we describe a rare cause of in utero fetal death, a complex entanglement of the umbilical cord around the fetal neck. At the 16th gestational week of pregnancy, routine fetal ultrasonography showed no fetal heartbeat. Thereafter, the fetus was delivered vaginally in the breech presentation. The neck was found to be encircled by multiple tight loops of the umbilical cord. Other than a thin and elongated neck, there were no dysmorphic features and no chromosomal abnormality on cytogenetic analysis.