Umbilical cord stricture and overcoiling are common causes of fetal demise.

Although umbilical cord stricture and umbilical cord overcoiling have been established as causes of intrauterine fetal demise, relatively few studies addressed this issue, most of them being case reports. We reviewed a total of 268 fetal autopsies during a 3-year period from 1998 to 2001. One hundred thirty nine cases of fetal demise including spontaneous abortion were identified.