Source: Annual Congress 2012 - The good clinical practice: useful case report
Disease area: Thoracic oncology

Abstract

Introduction: Splenosis is a rare finding of ectopic splenic tissue found within the thoracic cavity, abdomen or peritoneal cavity. In thoracic splenosis the splenic tissue most often grows in the form of a nodule and the auto-transplantation is usually caused by a previous penetrating or blunt trauma to the thoracic-abdominal region, resulting in splenic rupture.
Cases: We present three cases of thoracic splenosis. All the patients were Caucasians male aged 40-63 presenting with pleural masses that mimicked malignancy, who were eventually diagnosed as thoracic splenosis. All of them had a history of traumatic event to their upper abdomen which occurred 13-40 years ago resulting in splenectomy.
Methods: We made a Medline search in order to find all the cases of thoracic splenosis. We reviewed the cases in order to specify this rare condition.
Results: we found 39 case reports of patients diagnosed with thoracic splenosis. In the majority of the cases the patients are asymptomatic and are incidentally diagnosed with left hemithorax pulmonary lesions found via chest radiography or thoracic computed tomography. The average period of diagnosing thoracic splenosis from the time of trauma is roughly 21 years and ranges from 6 to 46 years. The diagnosis is challenging and the patients usually undergo extensive workout including surgical biopsy
Conclusion: We conclude that splenosis is a rare entity but one should think about this possibility in a patient with a left thoracic mass and a history of abdominal trauma, splenic rupture and splenectomy.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
N. Arish, A. Rockach, N. Bogot, I. Hadas-Halperen, G. Izbicki (Jerusalem, Israel). Thoracic splenosis – Case series and review of the literature. Eur Respir J 2012; 40: Suppl. 56, 3501

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