International Surgery Journal | December 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 12 Page 3745
International Surgery Journal
Bakhshi G et al. Int Surg J. 2021 Dec;8(12):3745-3748
http://www.ijsurgery.com
pISSN 2349-3305 | eISSN 2349-2902
Case Report
Pancreatic pseudoaneurysm and its conundrum
Girish Bakhshi
1
, Sushrut Baligar
1
*, Aishwarya Dutt
1
, Rajalakshmi Venkateswaran
1
,
Avinash Gutte
2
, Ravi Landge
1
, Chettubattina Ravi Teja
1
INTRODUCTION
A pancreatic pseudoaneurysm usually occurs when there
is an erosion of a peripancreatic or pancreatic artery into
a pseudocyst.
1
Increased excretion of elastase, induced by
chronic local inflammation, leads to autodigestion of
peripancreatic vessels or erosion of concomitant
pseudocysts into adjacent vessels.
2
Though splenic artery
pseudoaneurysm is the most common visceral artery
pseudoaneurysm less than 200 cases have been
described.
3
Pseudoaneurysm of pancreaticoduodenal and
its branches are even rarer and less than 50 cases have
been described in literature.
CASE REPORT
A 37 year old male patient presented with pain in
abdomen and vomiting since 10-15 days. The pain in
abdomen was periumbilical, insidious onset and
gradually progressive and colicky in nature. The vomiting
was non bilious, non-hemorrhagic and contained
undigested food particles. The patient reported similar
complaints 1 year back and was treated conservatively.
He was a known alcoholic since 10-12 years and
consumed approximately 10 units per week.
On admission to the hospital he was hemodynamically
stable. Abdominal examination revealed a non-tender
epigastric lump of approximate size 10×6 cm was noted
extending from epigastrium to just above the umbilicus.
Ultrasound of the abdomen showed chronic calcific
pancreatitis with 10×16×21 cm hypoechoic collection
surrounding the pancreas extending superiorly till the
right hypochondriac region and inferiorly till the pelvic
region, features suggestive of pancreatic pseudocyst.
During the course of stay in the hospital patient had an
episode of haematemesis and fainting episode. The
hemoglobin dropped from 9 g/dl to 6 g/dl in a span of 3
days. Resuscitation was done and blood transfusions were
given. Emergency contrast enhanced computed
tomography was done which showed thrombosed
segment of gastroduodenal artery with pseudoaneurysm
likely arising from superior pancreaticoduodenal artery,
communication of subhepatic pseudocyst with first part
of duodenum with hemorrhagic content within. The
ABSTRACT
Rupture of visceral artery pseudoaneurysm can lead to hypovolemic shock in a patient with pancreatitis. With the
advent of minimally invasive treatment techniques most of these can be managed by minimally invasive route and
have excellent prognosis when timely intervention is initiated. Herewith, we reported a case of ruptured
pseudoaneurysm of superior pancreaticoduodenal artery in a patient with pancreatitis who presented with
haematemesis. The patient was successfully managed with coil embolization. A brief case report with review of
literature is presented here.
Keywords: Pancreatitis, Pseudoaneurysm, Coil embolization, Haematemesis
1
Department of General Surgery,
2
Department of Radiology, Grant Government Medical College and Sir J. J. Group of
Hospitals, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Received: 04 October 2021
Accepted: 30 October 2021
*Correspondence:
Sushrut Baligar,
E-mail: baligarsushrut@gmail.com
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20214780