Portal vein pseudoaneurysm secondary to pancreatic lymphoma and biliary stent insertion: a rare cause of haemobilia

BACKGROUND: Haemobilia, defined as bleeding from the biliary tree, is a rare entity. The most common cause of haemobilia is iatrogenic trauma, which accounts for 70% of cases. Pseudoaneurysms of the portal vein are an extremely rare cause of haemobilia with only four reported cases to date. Conservative treatment, open surgical repair and percutaneous trans hepatic stent-grafting have all been employed in these cases. This displays the lack of consensus regarding the treatment of this condition. We report the first case of a portal vein pseudoaneurysm following endoscopic common bile duct stent placement performed to relieve obstruction of the common bile duct for lymphomatous infiltration of the pancreatic head. The pseudoaneurysm was successfully treated by placement of a percutaneous trans hepatic covered stent-graft. CASE PRESENTATION: A 42-year-old man with a history of lymphomatous infiltration of the pancreatic head and recent endoscopic common bile duct stent placement presented with sudden onset large volume haematemesis. On the portal venous phase of a triple phase CT, this was found to be secondary to a portal vein pseudoaneurysm bulging into the upper portion of the indwelling biliary stent. The pseudoaneurysm was successfully treated by percutaneous trans hepatic placement of a covered vascular stent-graft. CONCLUSIONS: We report a rare case of portal vein pseudo aneurysm successfully treated by percutaneous trans hepatic portal venous covered vascular stent-graft insertion.