Recurrent abdominal pain in a woman with a wandering spleen

Tan HH, Ooi LLPJ, Tan D, Tan CK
Correspondence: Dr Hui-Hui Tan, mhyhui@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
A 28-year-old Malay woman presented with recurrent abdominal pain for five years. She had delivered her child seven months earlier. She was found to have bicytopenia, with a haemoglobin level of 7.9 g/dL and a platelet count of 85 x 10(9)/L. Computed tomography revealed a wandering spleen. Complications of a wandering spleen, for which splenectomy is advocated, include functional asplenia (due to torsion of the splenic pedicle), splenic infarction or splenic vessel thrombosis. A splenectomy was performed and at operation, splenomegaly with a long mesentery was found. Splenic histology was negative for malignancy. The bicytopenia resolved postoperatively, and she remains well.

Keywords: recurrent abdominal pain, spleen torsion, thrombocytopenia, wandering spleen
Singapore Med J 2007; 48(4): e122–e124