[The placenta of premature births (author's transl)].

A prospective comparative study of 300 placentas of premature births and 300 full-term placentas demonstrated that in the former there was a higher frequency of certain types of anomalies: abnormal placental insertion; premature involution of the base plate; signs of fetal hypoxia; placental inflammation. In practice, however, pathological examination of the placenta appears to be of interest only for detecting inflammatory lesions.