Circumvallate Placenta: Maleficent or Meh?

The word placenta, first used in a 1638 anatomy textbook, was borrowed from the New Latin phrase placenta uterina, meaning "uterine cake", because the circular, flat shape of the organ was thought to resemble a traditional Roman flat cake. Circumvallate is another Latin derived term meaning the "encircled placenta, by a rampart". Circumvallate placentas are a form of extrachorial placenta where the basal plate extends past the margins of the chorion plate resulting in the chorion and amnion folding over one another onto the fetal surface. Is a circumvallate placenta an incidental finding or is it a harbinger of adverse outcomes? The answer to that question depended, until recently, on who you asked and WHEN you asked. In this episode, we will summarize and highlight a new publication from the American Journal of Perinatology from May 2023 which serves to offer a more definitive answer to this question. So, is the circumvallate placenta Maleficent or Meh? Listen in and find out!