Sonography of the accessory spleen

Accessory spleen in recurrent chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura

“…Our results seem to confirm this point although Howell-Jolly bodies absence should only be considered an adjunct to the diagnosis of a funct ioning accessory spleen [ 161. Apart from exploratory laparotomy [ 1 11, diagnosis of residual splenic tissue has included various radiological or scintigraphic techniques, such as thorium dioxide scans [ 171, technetium sullur colloid scans [18], ultrasonography and CT scan of thc abdomen [19][20][21], 5'Cr labeled RBC [22], Tc-99-labeled RBC opsonized with anti-D IgG [23], or I ' lIn-labeled platelet scans [241. Combinations of radionuclide and CT investigations have also been helpful [25,26] as well as preoperative scintigraphy [27-291.…”

Accessory spleen: Presentation as a large abdominal mass in an asymptomatic young woman

“…Although their size varies, the accessory spleens generally measure less than 4 cm in diameter [1,2,5,6]. Beahrs and Stephens did not observe accessory spleens larger than 2.5 cm in more than 8000 abdominal CT examinations performed on patients with normal-sized intact spleens [2].…”

Accessory spleen in pancreatic tail

“…Ultrasound usually shows an accessory spleen as a round, mildly echogenic mass with homogenous texture and posterior enhancement [6]. Importantly, Doppler USS has a sensitivity of 90% when a vascular hilum entering the lesion is identified [6].…”