Diagnostic postmortem angiography of fatal splenic artery haemorrhage

Summary The site of fatal haemorrhage from the splenic artery, caused in one case by a ruptured aneurysm and in another case by an intracystic haemorrhage of a postoperative pancreatic pseudocyst, was revealed by postmortem angiography. Radiopaque silicone rubber vulcanizing at room temperature was used as contrast medium. In the latter case, the dissection was seriously hampered by tight postoperative intestinal adhesions following four abdominal operations to control bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract. The results indicate the usefulness of postmortem angiography with contrast medium vulcanizing at room temperature for postmortem diagnosis of rare causes of gastrointestinal haemorrhage.Offprint requests to: P. J. Karhunen