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Robert Bendon, MD

  • Professor of Pathology
I am an MD pediatric pathologist , board certified in Anatomic and Pediatric Pathology
Medical school: Hahnemann, now Drexel, Philadelphia, PA
Residency: Tufts NE Medical Center Boston, MA
Fellowship, Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
 I was on faculty at the University of Cincinnati for 10 years, and then joined a private practice of pediatric and perinatal pathology at Kosair/Norton Children’s Hospital Louisville, KY I retired in 2016. This February I returned to active practice at Magee Women’s Hospital with the goal of accomplishing some research ideas.

Representative Publications

Bendon RW et.al. Features of chorio-amnion membrane rupture: development of methodology. Pediatr Pathol 1997; 17:27-42.

2. Bendon RW Review of autopsies of stillborn infants with retroplacental hematoma or hemorrhage. Pediatr. Dev Pathol 2011. 14:10-15

3. Bendon RW, Brown SP, Ross MG. In vitro umbilical cord wrapping and torsion: possible cause of umbilical blood flow occlusion. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2014. 27:1462-4

4. Bendon RW et.al. A follow up study of lymphohistiocytic villitis and of incidental retroplacental hematoma. Pediatr Dev Pathol. 2014. 17:94-101

5. Bendon RW et.al. The significance of C4d immunostaining in placental chronic intervillositis. Pediatr Dev Pathol 2015. 18:362-8

Research Interests

  1. The mechanism of death in unexplained stillbirth: This project has 4 parts: 1)  in situ MRI of the placenta and umbilical cord after fetal death but before delivery 2) an interview with questions of immediate events around the death 3) an autopsy evaluation to determine specific physiologic changes and their timing prior to death, 4) an evaluation of the placental oxygen diffusion capacity using computer automated relevant measurements such as total surface area of vascular-syncytial membranes/ gram of fetal body weight.
  2. The immunologic markers and mechanisms of chronic histiocytic intervillositis
  3. A cervical band that senses distortion and can signal the earliest changes of cervical labor