Massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to right hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm secondary to cholecystitis

Abstract

A literature trawl reveals a substantial number of reports on true visceral aneurysms, including the hepatic artery, but only a handful of cases of visceral pseudoaneurysms. The ones in relation to the biliary tree are associated with previous gall bladder surgery and can result in significant gastrointestinal bleeding. There are more than 10 reported cases of cystic artery pseudoaneurysms but a thorough search revealed only two cases in English (1,2) and perhaps one in Japanese literature of right hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm secondary to cholecystitis presenting as massive upper gastrointestinal bleed. We present a probable fourth case in a 52 year old woman with classical clinical/biochemical picture, typical radiological appearance and who underwent successful interventional radiological treatment of this condition. © 2013 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.