Spontaneous rupture of primary splenic angiosarcoma: a case report and literature review

BACKGROUND: Primary angiosarcoma of the spleen is a rare mesenchymal malignant tumor of vascular origin often with a poor prognosis, due to its high metastatic potential. This disease often presents with atraumatic rupture and lethal hemorrhage. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a 65-year-old man who presented with abdominal pain, anemia, thrombocytopenia, and palpable abdominal mass with unstable blood pressure. Laparotomy revealed a huge actively bleeding spleen, thus splenectomy was performed. Some liver metastasis foci were also found during the procedure. Histopathology diagnosis of the removed spleen was primary splenic angiosarcoma. The patient was discharged on the 10th day post operation with no complication. CONCLUSIONS: Splenic angiosarcoma should be considered one of the differential diagnoses in patients with spleen parenchymal lesions. Definitive diagnosis requires laparotomy followed by splenectomy. In the majority of the patients with spleen angiosarcoma, metastatic diseases have already occurred at the time of laparotomy, so splenectomy is an approach more for diagnostic purpose rather than curative purpose.