Varicella zoster virus infection is an unusual cause of splenic rupture

Abstract

A 22-year-old man presented with a 1-day history of severe abdominal pain. He developed a generalised vesicular rash 12 h prior to admission. On examination, he was maximally tender with peritonism in the lower abdomen. Working diagnosis was perforated appendix and a decision to investigate with CT was made, which showed intra-abdominal haemorrhage likely arising from a ruptured spleen. After a period of observation, he subsequently underwent laparotomy and emergency splenectomy. Viral PCR from vesicular fluid was positive for varicella zoster virus. Viral serology was otherwise negative.

Open splenectomy for Varicella zoster induced spontaneous splenic rupture

“…The most common infections presented by this review were malaria (65 reports) and EBV (42 reports). An extended literature search identified only 3 other cases of varicella induced spontaneous splenic rupture [ [11] , [12] , [13] ] making this the 5th reported case in the literature. All reported cases have shared features in the patient demographics of a young male and expected dermatological findings for VZV preceding the onset of abdominal pain.…”