Technical factors responsible for "placental migration": sonographic assessment.

Whether placental migration occurs is debatable. To determine the incidence of placenta previa in early pregnancy and the frequency of placental migration, a retrospective analysis was undertaken of 2,087 consecutive obstetrical sonograms obtained during a 23-month period. Among 849 patients scanned between 14 and 26 weeks after conception, placenta previa was diagnosed using ultrasonography (US) in 53 patients (6.2%). This diagnosis was confirmed at surgery in 15 patients (1.8%); there were 12 cases of central previa and three cases of partial previa. Retrospective analysis revealed that in 25 cases, technical factors, such as an overly distended urinary bladder (19 cases) or focal uterine contractions (six cases), were responsible for the false-positive diagnoses. In the 13 remaining patients, however, there were no obvious technical difficulties to account for the diagnosis of previa. Migration did not occur in any of the patients with central previa. It appears that placental migration may occur, although less frequently than has previously been reported. Furthermore, this study suggests that migration does not occur in patients with central previa.