Isolated pancreatic heamorrhage in association with anticoagulation

Abstract

Haemorrhage is the primary complication of anticoagulation therapy with the gastrointestinal, urinary and nasal tracts the most common sites of bleeding. Haematoma within solid organs is uncommon especially in the absence of blunt trauma. We describe two patients on long term Warfarin therapy who developed focal haematomas within the pancreas. To the best of our knowledge these are the first isolated unprovoked focal pancreatic hematoma cases reported in the literature. The non-specific clinical symptoms and confusing radiological features mimicked pancreatic malignancy and this led to misdiagnosis in the one patient who underwent unnecessary surgical exploration. The haematoma was correctly identified in the second patient who was managed conservatively and had an uneventful recovery. © 2013 Chiu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.