[A jejunal artery pseudoaneurysm ruptured in the jejunal lumen: A rare vascular complication of severe pancreatitis]

Abstract

Jejunal pseudoaneurysm is a rare complication of pancreatitis, usually manifested by digestive bleeding when it ruptures into the digestive lumen. This complication is extremely rare and may be life-threatening. The diagnosis is based on abdominal angiographic computed tomography. Radiology allows therapeutic management through arterial embolization. This case report describes a pseudoaneurysm of jejunal artery that developed as the result of pancreatitis: A 77-year-old man seen in early September 2015 at the emergency department for acute pancreatitis had a pseudocyst infected and spontaneously fistulized into the jejunum lumen. His condition responded initially to symptomatic therapy, and he was discharged. He returned two years later, with digestive bleeding from jejunal pseudoaneurysm that had ruptured into the jejunal lumen. Angiographic embolization was performed as first-line treatment with good outcome. Bleeding more than two years after acute pancreatitis due to rupture of a jejunal pseudoaneurysm is an exceptional complication. Here we report a rare case of digestive hemorrhage caused by jejunal pseudoaneurysm, complicating acute pancreatitis.

Keywords: Arterial embolization; Artère jéjunale; Artério-embolisation; Jejunal artery; Pancreatitis; Pancréatite; Pseudo-anévrisme; Pseudoaneurism.