Idiopathic omentum hemorrhage as a cause of hemoperitoneum

Abstract

Hemorrhage into the large omentum is a general term for a pathological condition in which an omental artery and/or vein ruptures with bleeding into the abdominal cavity and/or forming an omental hematoma. There is a high probability of its diagnosis only during surgery. This is an extremely rare condition, which is described only in clinical case reports. There are primary and secondary omental hemorrhage. Secondary hemorrhage occurs due to various reasons, primary (idiopathic) in the absence of morphological changes that could lead to bleeding to the large omentum. The article is devoted to a rare case of idiopathic omentum bleeding complicated by hemoperitoneum, diagnosed intraoperatively. The article presents the results of a literary review of the last twenty years on English-language and Russian-language publications on omental hemorrhage, presented in the databases of PubMed and the Russian scientific electronic library (eLIBRARY.RU). According to the results of the analysis of the literature data, ultrasound can be used as a first-line imaging method to assess the presence of hemoperitoneum. But CT angiography is the method of choice in assessing acute intra-abdominal bleeding and determining the cause of bleeding due to its speed, availability and ability to diagnose alternative causes of abdominal pain, and it is also recommended to be performed in cases where ultrasound data do not allow to unambiguously establish the presence of bleeding or localize its source. Also, taking into account the age characteristics and gender of patients, the presence of bleeding into the omentum may be due to conditions such as cystic lymphangioma and interrupted ectopic pregnancy. Other causes may be vascular pathologies, tumors and anticoagulant therapy. When detecting signs of bleeding into the large omentum, in addition to determining the fact of hemoperitoneum and its volume, the most important tasks are to establish the causes of hemorrhage and differential diagnosis between idiopathic and secondary bleeding.