Spontaneous splenic rupture secondary to dabigatran: The last in a series of unfortunate events

Abstract

We present the case of a 77-year-old woman who had an accidental fall in her garden, resulting in a fracture of her left ankle. After manipulation of the fracture, she developed sudden onset shortness of breath. An echo led to the diagnosis of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Shortly after this she developed sudden onset receptive and expressive dysphasia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head confirmed a left parietal infarct thought to be secondary to left ventricular thrombus formation. She was started on dabigatran. A few days later, she developed abdominal pain, and was subsequently diagnosed with a spontaneous splenic rupture. This case was interesting due to the unusual chain of events following a simple fall, and also a rare complication of anticoagulant therapy.