Placement and removal of abdominal cerclage by laparoscopy.

The patient was a 26-year-old woman with cervical incompetence who underwent a laparoscopic abdominal cerclage. She subsequently conceived; however, severe oligohydramnios was encountered at 19 weeks of gestation. Instead of performing a hysterotomy that required a laparotomy, the cerclage was removed laparoscopically. She delivered the following day. This is the first reported laparoscopic abdominal cerclage and its removal by laparoscopy at 19 weeks of gestation.