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Hemorrhagic ascites due to congestive heart failure
A K Goel1, L Ganesan, M Edelstein
1Department of Internal Medicine, VA Medical Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
The American Journal of Gastroenterology
|July 22, 1998
Abstract:
Ascites due to congestive heart failure (CHF) is characteristically serous in gross appearance. Although hemorrhage into ascites commonly indicates a malignant or inflammatory cause, cirrhosis of the liver is a well known cause of bloody ascites. We report a case of hemorrhagic ascites due to biventricular congestive heart failure in which workup for other causes was negative and hemorrhage cleared after 4 months. In as much as the mechanism of ascites is similar in both cirrhosis and CHF, we propose that a similar mechanism could cause bleeding into ascites in CHF.