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Spontaneous rupture of the lateral thoracic artery in patients with liver cirrhosis

2008; Korean Association of Internal Medicine; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3904/kjim.2008.23.3.152

2005-6648

Tae Hee Lee, Yong Sung Park, Dong Jin Chung, Ji Hyung Kim, Sun Moon Kim, Euyi Hyeog Im, Kyu Chan Huh,

Trauma Management and Diagnosis

Bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis is primarily caused by gastroesophageal varix in association with extensive collateral circulation, portal hypertensive gastropathy, a Mallory-Weiss tear and peptic ulcer disease. The spontaneous rupture of an artery, as a result of coagulopathy, is extremely rare in patients with liver cirrhosis; however, we recently observed a case of a spontaneous rupture of the lateral thoracic artery in a 47 year-old male patient with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. The patient expired despite repeated transcatheter arterial embolization of the lateral thoracic artery and best supportive care. This is, to our knowledge, the first documented case of the spontaneous rupture of the lateral thoracic artery in a patient with liver cirrhosis.