Acute abdomen due to wandering spleen infarction: a case report.
We report a rare clinical case of acute abdomen due to partial infarction of a wandering spleen in the pelvis in a 60-year-old woman. The patient was suffering from stabbing pain in the external lower quadrant of the abdomen, irradiating back to the lumbosacral area, together with an unremitting feverish state (38 degrees C), sickness and constipation. After carrying out serological examinations, which revealed an increase in CPK and leukocytosis, ultrasonography and CT examinations were performed, revealing a mass in the left iliac cavity, which in all probability was a wandering spleen with an abnormally long pedicle and a dyshomogeneous lower area bearing witness to a splenic infarction. The patient was therefore submitted to surgery consisting in splenectomy after lysis of the adherences, which were plainly inflammatory. A wandering spleen, especially when infarcted, is a very rare clinical condition that may be congenital or acquired. Its presence can be confirmed by serological, ultrasonographical and CT examinations and must be suspected when there is no clearly defined acute abdomen.
Dipartimento di Chirurgia dell'Università di Catania Sezione di Chirurgia Generale ed Oncologica U.O. di Patologia Chirurgica, Azienda Ospedali Vittorio Emanuele, Ferrarotto, S, Bambino.
Giuseppe
G
Benfatto
Gaetano
G
Catania
Grazia Maria
GM
D'Urso
Vincenzo
V
Licari
Giuseppe
G
Basile
Luigi
L
Tenaglia
Roberta
R
Giovinetto
Antonino
A
Giovinetto
D000006:Abdomen, Acute / Q000209:etiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013156:Splenectomy; D013159:Splenic Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery