Giant benign non-traumatic splenic pseudo cyst: An atypical cause of left upper quadrant abdominal pain

Abstract

Splenic cysts remain an unusual pathology in surgical practice. Traditionally, splenic cysts are classified into two main categories. (1) True cysts which are also referred to as primary cysts, these contains epithelial lining and (2) pseudo cysts which are basically devoid of the epithelial lining and mostly are of post-traumatic origin. Majority of splenic cysts are asymptomatic, often they are inadvertently revealed during physical abdominal examination or following use of various abdominal imaging techniques. However, splenic cysts may produce pressure symptoms to the adjacent organs and manifest as an unusual pain and heaviness in the left hypochondriac region. We herein, present a 35-year-old lady with a giant non-traumatic splenic pseudo cyst. Her main presenting symptom being long standing history of intervallic left upper quadrant abdominal pain. Splenic cystic lesions remain a rare pathology in our sub region. Therefore, this report serves as a reminder to clinicians in our setting to consider splenic cyst as a differential diagnosis when evaluating patients with left upper quadrant abdominal pains. Several surgical therapies have been recommended for management of splenic cysts. However, today where feasible, minimally invasive and spleen-salvaging alternatives are highly regarded as standard approaches. Key words: Spleen, splenic cyst, splenic pseudocyst, non-parasitic splenic cysts, non-traumatic splenic pseudo cyst, left upper quadrant abdominal pain.