Spontaneous omental bleeding: a case report and literature review

Spontaneous rupture of omental vessels is an infrequent medical condition possibly causing severe intra-abdominal hemorrhage. Omental bleeding results from trauma associated injury and irritation, neoplasia, arterial aneurysm rupture, and anticoagulant treatment. Idiopathic omental bleeding rarely causes acute abdominal bleeding which has been reported to occur in previous studies. Here we reported a case with idiopathic omental hemorrhage due to vascular malformation. A systematic review of literature is provided.

A 58-year-old Han Chinese man arrived at the emergency department with left upper quadrant abdominal pain for 1 day. He had no significant previous medical history. There was no history of fever, vomiting, nausea, or anorexia. He was a non-smoker and did not consume alcohol. On physical examination, blood pressure was 118/72 mmHg, for a temperature of 37.7 °C; heart and respiratory rates of 130 per/min and 20 per/min were obtained, respectively. Abdomen assessment showed only mild tenderness in the left upper quadrant. Complete blood count (CBC) showed white cell and platelet counts of 16.69 × 10³/L and 196 × 10³/L, respectively. The haemoglobin value was 13.5 g/L at admission. Abdominal Computer Tomography (CT) was performed that showed peritoneal fluid appeared around the liver. Fresh blood was confirmed in the abdominocentesis. A hemoperitoneum was confirmed by abdominal enhanced CT, which presented a structural disorder in the left upper abdomen. The subject immediately underwent exploratory laparotomy. A massive hemoperitoneum originating from omental vessels was observed. The omental were partially removed. There was no evidence of malignancy or aneurysm upon palpation. Pathological assessment of the extracted tissue pointed to vascular malformation. The patient subsequently had an uneventful recovery; hospital discharge occurred at 7 days post-operation.

Previous reports assessing idiopathic omental bleeding were systematically reviewed, summarizing published cases. A total of 12 hits were found in PubMed for idiopathic omental bleeding.

Idiopathic omental bleeding is a rare condition that requires emergency treatment. Treatment strategies include surgical intervention and transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE). The surgical option is suitable in subjects with persistent hypotension and those with unconfirmed diagnosis.