A Case of Postoperative Splenic Vein Thrombosis of Giant Splenic Hemangioma

Abstract

Portal vein thrombosis is a critical complication after splenectomy. A 10-year-old girl with no significant past medical history was brought to our hospital with a recent history of abdominal bruising. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan revealed giant splenic hemangioma. Splenic artery embolization was performed followed by laparoscopic splenectomy after confirming the shrinkage of the tumor, portal vein, and splenic vein. The pathological diagnosis was splenic hemangioma. A postoperative CT scan revealed splenic vein thrombosis, and the platelet count increased to 870,000/μl. Thus, we started antiplatelet therapy. The platelet count gradually decreased and splenic vein thrombosis finally disappeared on postoperative day 25. In this study, we prevented the extension of portal vein thrombosis to the splenic vein. We consider that preoperative splenic artery embolization might be helpful in terms of prophylaxis of portal vein thrombosis.