Hereditary haemoglobinopathies are common disorders in Oman. The most common haematological disorder among Omani population is sickle cell disease (SCD). The spleen is one of the organs that is affected early in the first decade of life in SCD patients. Splenectomy has shown a high success rate in improving the quality of life in SCD patients, through eliminating acute splenic sequestration crises, thus reducing the need for hospital admission and transfusion requirements. One of the rare complications of splenectomy is porto-splenic vein thrombosis. Multiple factors are responsible for this complication including: thermal and mechanical injury during ligation of splenic hilum, sudden increase in the platelet count and large spleen size. We report a rare case of extensive porto-splenic vein thrombosis that responded to early initiation of anticoagulation with resolution of the thrombosis and recanalisation.

Background Gastric duplication cyst is a rare congenital anomaly. It is usually located in close proximity to the stomach. Nevertheless, there have been seldom reports in the literature that describe unusual locations. Retroperitoneal gastric duplications cysts are extremely rare and are usually confused with renal or adrenal cysts. Case presentation In this case report, we are presenting a 2-year-old girl with a complaint of bouts of abdominal pain, found to have a retroperitoneal supra-adrenal cyst on imaging. She underwent laparoscopic resection of the cyst with uneventful post-operative course. The histopathological diagnosis was surprisingly gastric duplication cyst. Conclusion In our review of the literature, the variability of this condition and its clinical manifestation are apparent. We also conclude that this diagnostic entity should be part of the differential diagnosis of intraperitoneal or retroperitoneal cysts and that laparoscopic resection of retroperitoneal cysts is the preferred approach.

Feeding tubes (FTs) are commonly used as urinary catheters in neonates and children. Though generally safe, serious complications can result if the catheter spontaneously knots inside the bladder. We report a case of a spontaneous knotting of an intravesical Fr 6 FT in a late preterm female baby following urethral catheterization to collect a urine sample. The knotted catheter was removed via suprapubic cystotomy. The infant had good postoperative recovery.