The spleen and its vasculature in pancreatitis: CT findings.

The spleen and its vasculature are susceptible to damage from pancreatic inflammatory exudates. Fourteen patients were identified who demonstrated splenic or splenic vascular involvement from pancreatitis on computed tomography. Findings included intra- and perisplenic inflammatory fluid collections (n = 6), acute splenic hematomas (n = 3), splenic infarction (n = 1), splenic artery pseudoaneurysm (n = 1), and splenic vein thrombosis (n = 6). Eight of the 14 patients went on to urgent interventions including percutaneous catheter drainage (n = 2) and transcatheter embolotherapy (n = 6) based on the CT findings.