Spontaneous splenic rupture is a rare and life-threatening complication of severe malaria. It demands particular attention since delayed or missed diagnosis can be potentially fatal. The exact incidence is unknown largely due to underreporting. Acute malarial infection accounts for most of the spontaneous splenic rupture.
Plasmodium vivax
has been associated with the majority of them; however, on rare occasion, other
Plasmodium
infections have also resulted in splenic rupture. We report the case of a 74-year-old male who was diagnosed with severe malaria caused by
Plasmodium falciparum
(
P. falciparum
) infection and developed an acute abdomen while on treatment due to spontaneous splenic rupture which necessitated emergency splenectomy.
Highlights
Enterocutaneous fistula is a postoperative complication is 75–80% of the cases that results in metabolic complications.
Management of this complication is difficult, necessitating delayed surgery with associated high morbidity and significant mortality.
Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) dressing has been shown to decrease the healing time of chronic wounds and achieves a 64% spontaneous enterocutaneous fistula closure rate.
We improvised VAC dressing using simple materials for proximal enterocutaneous fistula.
Spontaneous closure was achieved on day 32.
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