23 Dec 2015Case Report
Atraumatic splenic rupture: an atypical presentation in a previously healthy patient
Fausto Famà 1Giovanni Scibilia 1Antonio Ieni 1Dario Presti 1Alessandra Villari 1Maria Florio 1
Affiliations
Article Info
1 University Hospital of Messina, Department of Human Pathology, Messina, Italy
Ann. Ital. Chir., 2015, 4(December), 1-4;
Published: 23 Dec 2015
Copyright (c) 2015 Annali Italiani di Chirurgia
Abstract
Atraumatic splenic rupture represents a life-threatening abdominal event that requires immediate diagnosis and prompt surgical treatment to ensure the survival of the patient. Atraumatic rupture is relatively uncommon and can occur either in pathological spleens or, more rarely, in normal ones. It has a high morbidity, frequently with few and non specific signs suggesting its presence, can be associated to other pathologies incidentally discovered by imaging. We present a case, successfully treated, of a 51-year-old man, previously healthy, that referred to our hospital for arterial hypertension and abdominal pain; the patient, for an idiopathic splenic rupture with haemoperitoneum, underwent an open splenectomy whose histology examination showed a normal spleen.
Keywords
- Atraumatic splenic rupture
- Normal spleen
- Spontaneos haemoperitoneum