Hodgkin's disease presenting as spontaneous splenic rupture.

Abstract

Hodgkin's disease presenting as spontaneous splenic rupture is rare. A 46-year-old man with a 4-week history of fever, chills, and night sweats developed sudden abdominal pain and hypotension. At surgery, an enlarged, ruptured spleen with a nodular surface was found. Histologically, there was diffuse infiltration of the red pulp by mixed-cellularity Hodgkin's disease with patchy involvement of the white pulp. The histopathologic findings in the three previously reported cases are all dissimilar to this. These differences most likely represent rupture occurring at different stages of splenic infiltration by Hodgkin's disease.