Medical image of the week: abdominal hematoma

• Main Author: Larson M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2016-10-01
• Series: Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Subjects: hematoma; abdominal; rectus; dabigatran; complication; CT scan; angiogram; inferior gastric artery; embolization; treatment
• Online Access: http://www.swjpcc.com/imaging/2016/10/5/medical-image-of-the-week-abdominal-hematoma.html

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. A 59 year-old man presented to clinic with acute-on-chronic non-productive cough along with sore throat and myalgias for 2 weeks and lower left quadrant (LLQ) abdominal pain for 2-3 days. He was a current smoker with history significant for COPD and mild “smoker’s cough” controlled with daily anticholinergic and as-needed beta-agonist, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation on dabigatran and diltiazem, hypertension controlled by diuretic, and a former alcoholic with hemochromatosis. While getting an x-ray, he had a coughing fit resulting in abrupt worsening of his LLQ pain enough to inhibit ambulation. Due to his inability to walk, he came via ambulance to the emergency department, where he was mildly tachycardic with a 10cm firm, tender and ecchymotic LLQ mass. Contrast-enhanced abdominal/pelvic CT demonstrated a large rectus abdominis hematoma. Figure 1 shows the hematoma within the rectus sheath measuring 16 cm with active contrast extravasation. The patient went directly to the interventional suite ...