Ectopic Pelvic Spleen

Abstract

We are reporting the first, to our knowledge, ectopic pelvic spleen demonstrated preoperatively by means of a liver-spleen scan and a selective splenic arteriogram. Symptoms, consisting of crampy pain in the lower part of the abdomen exacerbated by standing or stooping, were relieved by splenectomy in this 19-year-old woman. Splenopexy, which has been advocated in the past, has no place in the management of this rare and interesting congenital variant. Laxity or failure of development of the phrenicosplenic and gastrosplenic ligaments is thought to account for the splenic descensus.