[Echotomographic picture of splenic rupture]

Over a period of four years, June 1986-June 1990, we examined 100 patients with semitraumas of the abdomen and the thorax. We sonographically confirmed rupture of the spleen in 12 patients. Sonographic verification of the ruptured spleen can offer direct or indirect sonographic indications. The indirect indication is the liquid in the abdominal cavity (haematoperitoneum). The direct sonographic indication is subcapsular haematoma of the spleen, and heterosonographic indication is the parenchyma in the form of deep unechogenic and liquid fissures of the spleen in all directions. In some patients these unechogenic parts of the spleen converge to the hilus of the spleen.