title: Acute colonoscopy-induced splenic rupture presenting to the emergency department.
abstract: Splenic rupture due to colonoscopy is a rarely reported event in the emergency medicine literature. Patients experiencing such an occurrence are likely to report to the emergency department. This paper documents an 84-year-old female who presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and nausea less than 24 hours following a colonoscopy. An abdominal ultrasound revealed splenomegaly and free fluid. An abdominal computed tomography was significant for a splenic laceration. She underwent radiologic guided embolization and recovered without incident. Emergency medicine physicians need to consider splenic rupture as a differential in patients presenting after colonoscopy with abdominal pain.
authors.affiliation: Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Monica D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Shih