On reaching the hospital, Perdy had collapsed and was diagnosed with a cornual pregnancy, meaning that the pregnancy was ectopic and she needed an emergency hysterectomy.

Other risk factors include low lying placenta, anterior placenta, congenital or acquired uterine defects (such as uterine septa), leiomyoma,ectopic implantation of placenta (including cornual pregnancy).

The term cornual pregnancy is sometimes used as a synonym, but remains ambiguous as it is also applied to indicate the presence of a pregnancy located within the cavity in one of the two upper "horns" of a bicornuate uterus.