Acute renal and splenic infarctions: a review

Abstract

Background: Renal and splenic infarctions are close entities, with few data concerning their clinical, biological and radiological features.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical presentations, etiologies and outcomes of acute renal infarctions (RI) and splenic infarctions (SI).

Design: A retrospective multicentric cohort study included patients of the 6 university hospitals in Lyon with RI, SI, or associated RI-SI infarctions was conducted.

Methods: All consecutive cases diagnosed by CT imaging, between January 2013 and October 2016, were included. The exclusion criteria were causes of infarction that did not require additional investigations.

Results: A total of 161 patients were selected for analysis: 34 patients with RI, 104 patients with SI and 23 patients with both RI-SI. Mean ± SD age of patients was 63.2 ± 16.6 years; 59.6% were male. Only 5/161 (3.1%) were healthy prior to the event. The main symptoms were diffuse abdominal pain (26.4%), followed by nausea/vomiting (18.3%) and fever (16.4%).The causes of RI or SI varied significantly within the three groups. Hypercoagulable state was associated with SI, and embolic disease and arterial injury were associated with RI. Extensive (i.e.>2/3 of organ volume) (OR 6.22, 95%CI 2.0119.22) and bilateral infarctions (OR 15.05, 95%CI 1.79-126.78) were significantly associated with hemodynamic shocks. The survival at 1 month follow-up did not significantly differ between the three groups.

Conclusion: Acute RI and SI are heterogenous entities in regards to their clinical presentation, etiology, associated venous or arterial thrombosis, but prognoses were not different at short term follow-up.