Abstract
A 17-year-old male visited the hospital, alone, after experiencing a traffic accident while riding his bicycle. He was diagnosed with splenic injury using focused assessment with sonography for trauma patients and enhanced CT imaging. Imaging studies revealed no extravasation, and his vital signs were stable; therefore, he was treated conservatively. Follow-up CT on the ninth hospital day revealed a 38 × 41 mm highly enhanced splenic lesion that was diagnosed as an intrasplenic pseudoaneurysm. On the 10th hospital day, the patient reported abdominal pain and was found to have a delayed splenic rupture. Hence, emergency transcatheter arterial embolization was performed. Subsequently, he was discharged without re-bleeding on the 30th hospital day. Pseudoaneurysms greater than 10 mm in diameter have been reported to be correlated with the requirement of interventions such as TAE or surgery; furthermore, intervention is required in many cases of pseudoaneurysms. Therefore, angiography and embolization should be considered as soon as possible for patients with blunt splenic injury who are thought to be at high risk for failure of nonoperative management because of the presence of an intrasplenic pseudoaneurysm greater than 10 mm in diameter.
