Spontaneous rupture of spleen in a patient with splenic metastasis of melanoma. A case report

Abstract

We report a case of spontaneous splenic rupture in a patient with metastatic melanoma. Spontaneous splenic rupture without previous trauma has been observed in various pathological conditions such as infectious mononucleosis, malaria, typhoid fever and, rarely, neoplasms affecting the spleen. There have been several reported cases of splenic rupture in leukemias. Despite the high incidence of splenic metastases in metastatic melanoma, there have been only 3 cases of spontaneous splenic rupture reported in the past.