Spontaneous Rupture of the Normal Spleen

Abstract

Spontaneous rupture of a normal spleen is a rare event; its acceptability as a definite clinical entity has created considerable controversy. 1,13,14,23,27,29 In their excellent treatise on the subject, Orloff and Peskin 19 elaborated upon certain criteria that should be satisfied before a rupture of the spleen may be considered spontaneous, stressing the absence of trauma, perisplenic adhesions, or disease that might adversely affect the spleen, and the lack of a preexistent anatomic abnormality within the substance of the spleen. Using these criteria the authors rejected 43 of the 71 cases (60%) reported during the last 6 decades as spontaneous ruptures of the spleen. In the absence of objective evidence of disease or structural abnormality directly or indirectly affecting the spleen, the acceptability of a case as spontaneous rupture rests entirely upon a negative history of trauma, that is, upon the reliability of the patient's memory of possible contributing events.