Full Inferior Vena Cava Agenesis Causing Acute Abdominal Symptoms: Case Report and Literature Review

Abstract

Absence of the entire inferior vena cava caused acute abdominal symptoms, and the patient, a twenty-year-old man, was operated on on an emergency ba sis. Subsequent ascending venography, abdominal computed tomographic scan, intraarterial digital subtraction angiography, and intraosseous phlebography revealed full inferior vena cava and iliac venous system agenesis, up to and above the level of the hepatic veins, venous return from the lower limbs and the abdominal viscera being through a series of multiple collateral channels and the azygos-hemiazygos system.