Grade 3 spleen injury - delayed rupture

Luis Filipe Pinheiro, Hospital S. Teot󮩯, Viseu, Portugal

Grade 3 spleen injury

Woman, 65 years of age, who sustained a car crash injury with blunt thoracoabdominal trauma with severe respiratory distress, due to bilateral lung contusions and haematoma. She was admited in the ICU in order to be adequately ventilated, after adequate bilateral chest drainage. On admission, a small contusion in the superior pole of the spleen was diagnosed by ultrasonography using the FAST procedure. Six days later, in the ICU, she went into hypovolemic shock due to secondary rupture of the spleen. She was submited to an urgent splenectomy, and returned to the ICU. The recovery was uneventful.

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