The most common complications of chronic pancreatitis are pancreatic calcification, diabetes mellitus, steatorrhea, pancreatic pseudocyst and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
Pesudoaneurysm whether with pseudocyst or not may cause gasrointestinal bleeding and it is a serious complication. Erosion of visceral artery with pseudoaneurysm formation may bleed into pancreatic duct which is known as "emosuccus Pancreaticus"
On
rare
occasions, pseudoaneurysm may bleed into adjacent organs (stomach, duodenum, colon).
A 56-year-old man was admitted to Seoul National University Hospital with repeaoted hematemesis. With repeated gastroscopy, we found submucosal tumor like lesion in the stomach. Computed tomography and celiac angiography showed splenic artery
pseudoaneurysm, which at operation was found to have ruptured into the stomach. The pseudoaneurysm and spleen were removed and the patients has no further bleeding.
When gastrointestinal bleeding is associated with chronic pancreatitis and the usual sources of bleeding arc not detected by endoscopy, the rupture of a pseudoaneurysm schould be considered as one of the causes.
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