Martins GLP, Bernardes JPG, Rovella MS, Andrade RG, Viana PCC, Herman P, Cerri GG, Menezes MR. Radiofrequency ablation for treatment of hypersplenism: A feasible therapeutic option. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(20): 6391-6397 [PMID: 26034376 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i20.6391]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marcos Roberto Menezes, MD, Director of Radiology and Image-Guided Intervention Service, Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, University of São Paulo, Av. Doutor Arnaldo 251 1º andar, Sao Paulo 01415-000, Brazil. marcos.menezes@hc.fm.usp.br
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2015; 21(20): 6391-6397 Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i20.6391
Radiofrequency ablation for treatment of hypersplenism: A feasible therapeutic option
Guilherme Lopes P Martins, Joao Paulo G Bernardes, Marcello S Rovella, Raphael G Andrade, Publio Cesar C Viana, Paulo Herman, Giovanni Guido Cerri, Marcos Roberto Menezes
Guilherme Lopes P Martins, Joao Paulo G Bernardes, Marcello S Rovella, Raphael G Andrade, Publio Cesar C Viana, Marcos Roberto Menezes, Radiology and Image-Guided Intervention Service, Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 01415-000, Brazil
Paulo Herman, Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil
Giovanni Guido Cerri, Instituto de Radiologia do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP, São Paulo 05403-900, Brazil
Marcos Roberto Menezes, Instituto de Radiologia do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP, São Paulo 05403-900, Brazil
Author contributions: Martins GLP, Herman P and Menezes MR designed the report; Martins GLP, Bernardes JPG, Rovella MR and Andrade RG collected the patient’s clinical data; Martins GLP, Viana PCC and Menezes MR analyzed the data and wrote the paper; Cerri GG and Menezes MR revised the paper.
Supported by Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, University of São Paulo Medical School, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Ethics approval: The Human Research Ethical Review Committee at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo and Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo had evaluated the research proposal/study presented by Marcos Roberto de Menezes and colleagues.
Informed consent: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Correspondence to: Marcos Roberto Menezes, MD, Director of Radiology and Image-Guided Intervention Service, Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, University of São Paulo, Av. Doutor Arnaldo 251 1º andar, Sao Paulo 01415-000, Brazil. marcos.menezes@hc.fm.usp.br
Telephone: +55-11-38932000 Fax: +55-11-38932777
Received: October 6, 2014 Peer-review started: October 7, 2014 First decision: October 29, 2014 Revised: December 6, 2014 Accepted: February 5, 2015 Article in press: February 5, 2015 Published online: May 28, 2015 Processing time: 235 Days and 15.9 Hours
Abstract
We present a case of a patient with hypersplenism secondary to portal hypertension due to hepato-splenic schistosomiasis, which was accompanied by severe and refractory thrombocytopenia. We performed spleen ablation and measured the total spleen and ablated volumes with contrast-enhanced computed tomography and volumetry. No major complications occurred, thrombocytopenia was resolved, and platelet levels remained stable, which allowed for early treatment of the patient’s underlying disease. Previous work has shown that splenic radiofrequency ablation is an attractive alternative treatment for hypersplenism induced by liver cirrhosis. We aimed to contribute to the currently sparse literature evaluating the role of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the management of hypersplenism. We conclude that splenic RFA appears to be a viable and promising option for the treatment of hypersplenism.
Core tip: The role of splenic radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the management of hypersplenism is still under study, and the current literature is sparse. This case report not only presents splenic RFA as an attractive alternative treatment for hypersplenism induced by liver cirrhosis, but also shows that it appears to be a viable, safe and promising option for these patients.
