Successful surgical treatment for aneurysm of splenic artery with anomalous origin.

Abstract

The splenic artery is the third common site of an infrarenal abdominal arterial aneurysm after the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries, and the most common site of a visceral artery aneurysm. It is a rare, but clinically important form of vascular disease with the potential for life-threatening rupture. We report a 64-year-old woman with a splenic artery aneurysm. Though she was asymptomatic, calcification around the left upper quadrant was incidentally detected. A saccular aneurysm with calcification located in the proximal portion of the splenic artery was detected by computed tomography (CT). Anomalous origin of the splenic artery, from the superior mesenteric artery (SMA), was also detected. Aneurysmal resection without splenectomy was carried out successfully. A suitable approach to aneurysms must be selected in each case, because the splenic artery exhibits congenital anomaly in 10% of all the people.