Subphrenic abscess mimicking subcapsular splenic hematoma on computed tomography images

The authors describe a case of 70-year-old woman, who developed a subphrenic abscess after D2 gastrectomy. The abscess looked like an acute subcapsular splenic hematoma on computed tomography images. Therefore the patient was reoperated. It turned out during the operation that there was a subphrenic pus collection, while the spleen had been intact. The reason for this complication was unoesophagal fistula. The case report shows limitations of CT images interpretation and a failure that can result from fixed bearing radiological criteria. (author)