The cystic hygroma of the neck in fetuses is a congenital anomaly, usually detected by ultrasound during the prenatal morphological study. It is a rare anomaly that is diagnosed relatively easy by an examination of the nuchal fold. The frequency of the cystic hygroma in the world is approximately 1/6000 live births, but there is no data for diagnosed cases in Bulgaria. The purpose of this work is to present a case of cystic hygroma of the neck in a fetus from Varna, Bulgaria. The method used is an autopsy. The fetus is female, weighing 250g, the result of a spontaneous abortion during the 19th gestational week.
Results: The autopsy found a cystic bilocular hygroma of the neck and a unilateral ptosis of the kidney
Conclusion: The cystic hygroma of the neck can be isolated, but it is often associated with trisomy 21 or with other malformation syndromes, which confirms the importance of morphological examinations of the neck during the prenatal ultrasound.