Abdominal apoplexy: rupture of short gastric artery after retching

Abdominal apoplexy, or idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage (ISIH), is a rare but often fatal condition resulting from a variety of disease processes affecting abdominal vasculature. A 30-year-old woman presented with acute abdominal pain and breathlessness and was in class II hypovolem...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Theiyallen Ambikapathi, Sentilnathan Subramaniam, Mohd Firdaus Mohd Hayati
Format: Article
Language:en
en
Published: Surgical Society of Kenya 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/28945/1/Abdominal%20apoplexy_%20rupture%20of%20short%20gastric%20artery%20after%20retching.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/28945/2/Abdominal%20apoplexy_%20rupture%20of%20short%20gastric%20artery%20after%20retching%20_ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/28945/
https://www.ajol.info/index.php/aas/article/view/222423
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/aas.v19i1.10
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Summary:Abdominal apoplexy, or idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage (ISIH), is a rare but often fatal condition resulting from a variety of disease processes affecting abdominal vasculature. A 30-year-old woman presented with acute abdominal pain and breathlessness and was in class II hypovolemic shock. She had a history of multiple episodes of retching with non-bilious vomiting prior to that. Computed tomography (CT) reported a non-rotation of the gut, gross intraperitoneal free fluid with debris, and possible perforated appendicitis. Laparoscopy revealed a gross hemoperitoneum of 2.5 L, with bowel findings consistent with non-rotation of the gut, but technical difficulty in identifying the source of bleeding led to conversion to laparotomy. A ruptured short gastric artery was ascertained to be the source of bleeding and was successfully ligated. A retrospective review of the preoperative CT showed intraperitoneal free fluid with Hounsfield unit measurements of 48 and 52, suggestive of acute hemoperitoneum. ISIH is often a delayed diagnosis or missed diagnosis due to its low incidence. The presence of vomiting and abdominal pain with hypovolemic shock, especially in a young individual, should raise the suspicion of ISIH, which can be confirmed via early CT imaging to facilitate achieving hemostasis during surgery.