Ruptured Splenic Artery Pseudoaneurysm Causing Hemorrhage Into a Pancreatic Pseudocyst

Abstract

This case report describes fatal exsanguination due to splenic artery hemorrhage into a pancreatic pseudocyst with cystogastrostomy in a 46-year-old woman. The decedent had a complicated medical history including necrotizing pancreatitis, giant pseudocyst formation after cystogastrostomy procedure, and coiling of a hemorrhagic splenic artery. While hospitalized, she underwent embolization of a ruptured splenic artery pseudoaneurysm. Weeks later, she went into hemorrhagic shock and was ultimately pronounced at the hospital. Doctors suspected an upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleed as the cause of death; however, the patient was too unstable to undergo interventional radiology at the time.At autopsy, the pancreas was hemorrhagic and included a 15 × 15 × 15-cm pseudocyst, which contained a metallic stent from a cystogastrostomy. This case describes a unique co-occurrence of numerous common complications of chronic pancreatitis. There are multiple ways by which pancreatitis can cause upper and lower GI bleeds. In this case, the presence of a cystogastrostomy stent allowed for a ruptured pseudoaneurysm to hemorrhage through the pancreatic pseudocyst and into the stomach and duodenum, mimicking the presentation of a more common upper GI bleed. The pseudocyst then ruptured causing abdominal hemorrhage. The passage of hemorrhage through a cystogastrostomy stent is not described in other literature.