Medical Must-See: Unusual umbilical finding ties doctors in knots

Luckily, the infant was normal and healthy, and was discharged two days after birth.
Staff writer
Figure 1: Double and single true knot of an umbilical cord. Meconium staining was noted around the edge of the placenta.

A US infant might be the next Houdini after escaping, unscathed, from both a double and a single ‘true’ knot in the umbilical cord upon delivery.

While most umbilical cord knots are diagnosed by ultrasound before birth, they can be easily missed – as happened in the case of this mother, who presented to hospital in labour at 39 weeks’ gestation.