Babesia microti infection presenting as acute splenic laceration

Blunt abdominal trauma leading to splenic injury can cause substantial morbidity, particularly in patients with established splenic pathology. In such cases, the extant pathology may increase a patient's susceptibility to blunt injury, most notably by inducing hypersplenism; Babesia microti may create such a condition.

Case report and English language-based literature review.

Obtaining an appropriate travel history and understanding endemic infectious conditions will better enable the clinician to establish readily treatable concomitant diagnoses in the setting of injury.

Failure to treat such infections may delay solid organ healing, leading to the patient being released to unrestricted and therefore risky activity with persistently abnormal splenic architecture.