Ultrasonography of the healing process during a 3-month follow-up after a splenic injury

• Main Authors: Vasileios Rafailidis, Dimitrios Apostolou, Christodoulos Kaitartzis, Dimitrios Rafailidis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Ultrasound in Medicine 2015-07-01
• Series: Ultrasonography
• Subjects: Spleen; Hematoma; Ultrasonography
• Online Access: http://www.e-ultrasonography.org/upload/usg-14057.pdf

We present a 14-year-old boy with a grade III splenic injury due to a bicycle accident, who was treated conservatively. The boy’s medical history included splenomegaly due to thalassemia. The splenic lesion was initially investigated with computed tomography (CT) and then, was followed by ultrasonography for 3 months. CT revealed a large intraparenchymal hematoma which appeared hyperechoic on ultrasonography. During follow-up, the hematoma developed a more complex echogenicity and became gradually hypoechoic. The hematoma increased in size during the first week but then, started decreasing until it eventually resolved completely. The patient had an uneventful full recovery. In this report, we discuss the ultrasonographic changes of the hematoma throughout the healing process.