Endovascular embolization of spontaneous retroperitoneal hemorrhage secondary to anticoagulant treatment.

The purpose of this study was to report a single hospital's experience of endovascular treatment of patients with retroperitoneal hemorrhage (RPH) secondary to anticoagulant treatment. Ten consecutive patients treated in an intensive care unit and needing blood transfusions due to RPH secondary to anticoagulation were referred for digital subtraction angiography (DSA) to detect the bleeding site(s) and to evaluate the possibilities of treating them by transcatheter embolization. DSA revealed bleeding site(s) in all 10 patients: 1 lumbar artery in 4 patients, 1 branch of internal iliac artery in 3 patients and multiple bleeding sites in 3 patients. Embolization could be performed in 9 of them. Coils, gelatin and/or polyvinyl alcohol were used as embolic agents. Bleeding stopped or markedly decreased after embolization in 8 of the 9 (89%) patients. Four patients were operated on prior to embolization, but surgery failed to control the bleeding in any of these cases. Abdominal compartment syndrome requiring surgical or radiological intervention after embolization developed in 5 patients. One patient died, and 2 had sequelae due to RPH. All 7 patients whose bleeding stopped after embolization had a good clinical outcome. Embolization seems to be an effective and safe method to control the bleeding in patients with RPH secondary to anticoagulant treatment when conservative treatment is insufficient.