Splenic rupture: a rare presentation of pancreatic carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Splenic rupture secondary to solid malignancy is an infrequent complication that usually occurs late in the progression of a previously diagnosed cancer. In rare instances, splenic rupture precipitates the discovery of an unsuspected pancreatic carcinoma. We report 2 cases of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas in which the patients presented with splenic rupture.


OBJECTIVE
To review the clinicopathologic features of splenic rupture due to pancreatic carcinoma and to increase awareness of malignancy as a possible etiology for atraumatic splenic rupture.


METHODS
We reviewed the clinical and pathologic data from 2 patients. A literature search was conducted to identify previous reports of splenic rupture associated with pancreatic cancer. We summarized the characteristics of the earlier cases and compared them with those of our patients.


RESULTS
We found only 4 previous reports of splenic rupture preceding the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In 3 of these cases, the pancreatic carcinoma grossly invaded the spleen at the time of resection. In contrast, malignancy was not suspected as the etiology of the rupture in our patients until histologic examination of the resected spleen revealed carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
Splenic rupture is an unusual presentation of cancer of the pancreas, and to our knowledge only 4 cases have been reported previously in the literature. Although an underlying malignancy is relatively rare, spleens resected for atraumatic rupture should be carefully examined for possible neoplastic etiologies.
Smith
Wendy M
WM
Department of Pathology, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus 43210-1228, USA.
Lucas
Joel G
JG
Frankel
Wendy L
WL
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D013161:Splenic Rupture / Q000209:etiology*