Complete hydatidiform moles in Ghana

Abstract

Hydatidiform moles belong to the spectrum of diseases known as gestational trophoblastic diseases. Gestational trophoblastic diseases have been known since antiquity. Hippocrates, four centuries before the birth of Christ, described the hydatidiform mole as dropsy of the uterus and attributed it to unhealthy water. It was not until 1700 that William Smellie first used the term hydatidid and mole l. In 1895, the pathological description of proliferation of the syncytium and the cytotrophoblast of the villi in molar pregnancies was established. Since then, a considerable amount of knowledge and experience has been obtained. Workers in Africa continue to find the scope of the disease in our subregion despite our limited resources.