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Mahdi Bouassida, Selim Sassi, Mohamed Fadhel Chtourou, Noomen Bennani, Sonia Baccari, Fathi Chebbi, Mechaal Benali, Mohamed Mongi Mighri, Hassen Touinsi, Sadok Sassi. A wandering spleen presenting as a hypogastric mass: case report. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2012;11:31 Key words: Wandering spleen, torsion, CT scan, splenectomy, splenopexy Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/11/31/full Received: 30/12/2011 - Accepted: 14/02/2012 - Published: 21/02/2012 © Mahdi Bouassida et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
A wandering spleen presenting as a hypogastric mass: case report
Mahdi Bouassida1,&, Selim Sassi1, Mohamed Fadhel Chtourou1, Noomen Bennani1, Sonia Baccari1, Fathi Chebbi1, Mechaal Benali2, Mohamed Mongi Mighri1, Hassen Touinsi1, Sadok Sassi1
1Department of surgery, Mohamed Thahar Maamouri Hospital, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2Department of reanimation, Mohamed Thahar Maamouri Hospital, Nabeul, Tunisia
&Corresponding author
Mahdi Bouassida, Department of surgery, Mohamed Thahar Maamouri Hospital, 8000 Mrazga, Nabeul, Tunisia
Wandering spleen is a rare condition characterized by the absence or underdevelopment of one or all of the ligaments that hold the spleen in its normal position in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen. It is an uncommon clinical entity that mainly affects children. Among adults it most frequently affects women of reproductive age, in whom acquired laxity of the splenic ligaments is usually the cause. Patients with a wandering spleen may be asymptomatic, present with a movable mass in the abdomen, or have chronic or intermittent abdominal pain because of partial torsion and spontaneous detorsion of the spleen. A 26-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with vomiting and abdominal pain. Abdominal examination revealed a large ovoid hypogastric mass. A CT scan showed a wandering spleen in the hypogastric region. Exploratory laparotomy revealed an ischemic spleen. A total splenectomy was performed.
