Morphological Features Of The Umbilical Cord Vessels At The Delivery, In Sudanese Neonates

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study was aim to describe the morphological features of the cord vessels at the birth.Materials and methods: 980 umbilical cords of single birth Sudanese neonates, of normal vaginal deliverieswere studied, with mother age ranged between 18 to 45 years and parity from 1 to 8 children. The study wascarried out in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Omdurman Maternity Hospital, Sudan, 2017. Thecords were cut about 5 centimeters from the baby abdominal wall using scissor; the parts of the cords from thecut end to the placental insertion were dissected using the anatomical dissection tools and method, their bloodwere delivered from surrounding tissues and studied; the study includes; gross observation of the cord vessels.For general histology, two cm. of cord tissue was studied, using natural historical stains and methods. Specialstains, Masson’s Trichrome, Van Gieson and Verhoff’s were used to clarify the connectives tissues within thecord.Results and conclusion: the single umbilical artery were about 1.2%, more common in male, the ratio of male-tofemale was about 21, and it was found associated with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. the relation betweencord vessels after dissection showed that; in same cords arteries and vein were course together in a parallelfashions, vein centrally with arteries peripherally, some showed vein run predominantly straight with arteriescoiled around it, while other showed arteries and vein course together in a helical fashion in a one-to-onerelationship. Moreover the cord vessels don’t run close each other like the rest of the blood vessels in the body,they were found separated by a wide tissues structure of Wharton’s jelly without branches elements, and theafter the umbilical vein was found surrounded by a special sheath. It is concluding that, the highly condensedtissue around the vein, it helps to maintenance the vein and preventing it from occlusion; because the vein isfewer coils and under tensile force of the fetal mobility. Our recommendation that; studding morphologicalfeatures the cord vessels is significantly important, because their relations play an essential role in fetalintrauterine survival.