Aseptic splenic abscess as precursory extraintestinal manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease.

Joel Brooks,Gisoo Ghaffari

doi:10.1155/2014/684231

Abstract

Splenic abscesses are most often secondary to aerobic bacterial infections due to Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, and Enterococcus species of organisms. Sterile splenic abscesses rarely occur and diagnosis and treatment of those are challenging. We report a case of a previously healthy young female presenting with aseptic splenic abscesses as the initial manifestation of Crohn's disease along with a review of the literature on aseptic splenic abscess as an extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn's disease.

Highlights

Splenic abscesses are rare occurrences and are most commonly caused by bacterial infections with an incidence between 0.14 and 0.7% [1, 2]
Aseptic splenic abscesses are much less common, with the majority of cases reported from Europe [3,4,5]
This report describes a young female with recurrent aseptic pustular skin lesions as well as sterile splenic abscesses refractory to antibiotic treatments

Summary

Introduction

Splenic abscesses are rare occurrences and are most commonly caused by bacterial infections with an incidence between 0.14 and 0.7% [1, 2]. There are fewer than 800 cases reported in the literature regarding splenic abscess. Aseptic splenic abscesses are much less common, with the majority of cases reported from Europe [3,4,5]. The majority of splenic abscesses are infectious; blood and aspirated fluid cultures often reveal the causative pathogen [6,7,8]. The small and large bowel biopsies as well as serology suggested Crohn’s disease. The clinical, laboratory, and radiographic responses to prednisone and azathioprine offered additional support for the diagnosis of an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Case Presentation

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion