Original Article

Conservative management of hematoma of the rectus sheath, unusual cause of acute abdomen: A case report

Abstract

Rectus sheath hematoma (RSH) is an accumulation of blood within the rectus sheath, secondary to rupture of the epigastric arteries. It is a rare condition, accounting for 1.6-1.8% of abdominal pain cases. It is more frequentlyo bserved in women, over the age of 50. Predisposing factors include the long-term use of anticoagulants, antiplatelets, steroids or immunosuppressants, prolonged INR, pregnancy, cardiovascular disease, hematologicaldis ease, hypertension, and diabetes. The symptoms are typically described as persistent and non-radiating acuteabdominal pain that classically worsens with movements involving the abdominal wall (Carnett’s sign). Cullen’ssigns (periumbilical ecchymosis) and Gray Turner’s signs (flank ecchymosis) may also be present. In stable
patients, the management is conservative.

1. Sheth HS, Kumar R, Dinella J, Janov C, Kaldas H,S mith RE. Evaluation of Risk Factors for Rectus Sheath Hematoma. Clin Appl Thromb Hemost 2016;22:292–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/1076029614553024
2. Hatjipetrou A, Anyfantakis D, Kastanakis M. Rectusshm ath hematoma: A review of the literature. Int JSurg 2015;13:267–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.I JSU.2014.12.015
3. Liao E-D, Puckett Y. A Proposed Algorithm on the Modern Management of Rectus Sheath Hematoma:
A Literature Review. Cureus 2021;13. https://doi org/10.7759/CUREUS.20008
4. Selma A Ben, Genese T. Spontaneous Rectus Sheath Hematoma: An Uncommon Cause of Acute Abdominal
Pain. Am J Case Rep 2019;20:163–6. https://doi.o rg/10.12659/AJCR.913246
5. Gradauskas A, Venclauskas L, Pažusis M, Karpavičius A, Maleckas A. Comparison of the Different Treatment
Strategies for Patients with Rectus Sheath Haematoma.Medicina (Kaunas) 2018;54. https://doi.org/10.3390 MEDICINA54030038
6. Contrella BN, Park AW, Wilkins LR, Sheeran D,Hassinger TE, Angle JF. Spontaneous Rectus Sheath Hematoma: Factors Predictive of Conservative Management Failure. J Vasc Interv Radiol 2020;31:323–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JVIR.2019.06.009
7. Angeramo CA, Méndez P, Eyheremendy EP,Schlottmann F. Rectus sheath hematoma: conservative,
endovascular or surgical treatment? A single-centera rtificial neural network analysis. Eur J Trauma Emerg
Surg 2022;48:2157–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/S00068-021-01854-2
8. Erkent M, Topcu R, Ozkan MB, Yildirim MB, Aslan O, Sezikli I. Analysis of Risk Factors for Rectus Sheath Hematoma. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak 2021;30:633–7. https://doi.org/10.29271/JCPSP.2021.06.633
9. Bello G, Blanco P. Giant rectus sheath hematoma. Ultrasound J 2019;11. https://doi.org/10.1186/S13089-
019-0129-4
10. Berná JD, Garcia-Medina V, Guirao J, Garcia-Medina J. Rectus sheath hematoma: diagnostic classification
by CT. Abdom Imaging 1996;21:62–4. https://doi.org/10.1007/S002619900011
11. Buffone A, Basile G, Costanzo M, Veroux M, Terranova L, Basile A, et al. Management of patients with rectus
sheath hematoma: Personal experience. J Formos Med Assoc 2015;114:647
Files
IssueVol 7 No 2 (2024) QRcode
SectionOriginal Article(s)
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/ajs.v7i2.16351
Keywords
Rectus, hematoma, surgery

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Gutiérrez González JA, Curiel Rivas JA, Cerda Garcia MV, Muñoz Maldonado GE. Conservative management of hematoma of the rectus sheath, unusual cause of acute abdomen: A case report. AJS. 2024;7(2):37-39.