Abdominal splenosis and its differential diagnoses: What the radiologist needs to know

Splenosis is a benign acquired condition characterized by the presence of heterotopic viable splenic tissue in other organs or within cavities such as peritoneum, retroperitoneum, or thorax after splenic trauma or surgery. Abdominal splenosis is often an incidental finding and computed tomography and magnetic resonance usually allow a confident diagnosis. The typical enhancement that parallels the spleen is a useful hallmark of splenosis. Splenic implants lack contrast uptake in the hepatobiliary phase and show high signal at high b-values on diffusion-weighted images. In some cases splenosis may mimic malignant and benign conditions in the peritoneum as well as in hollow and parenchymal abdominal organs and further investigations - including scintigraphy with Tc99m-labelled heat-denatured red blood cells or biopsy - are sometimes required in challenging cases. This pictorial essay reviews the imaging presentation and potential differential diagnosis of splenosis according to the site of implantation. A prompt and accurate radiological diagnosis of splenosis can avoid unnecessary biopsy or surgery.