Littoral cell angioma as a rare cause of splenomegaly

A 58-year-old, otherwise healthy man presented with a sudden onset of water y diarrhea. A pseudomembranous colitis due to antibiotics was identified as the cause of the diarrhea. Enlargement of the spleen was detected during t he evaluation. The enlarged, plump spleen (20 cm long, 7.1 cm wide) had mul tiple nodules that differed in size from 1 to 8 cm. Neither clinical nor ot her symptoms of an underlying malignant disease could be detected. Because the signs were of little diagnostic value we arranged a splenectomy, which showed a littoral cell angioma (LCA) to be the cause of splenomegaly. In ad dition to the case report, we have reviewed the literature, clinical manife stations, differential diagnosis, special gross and microscopic pathologica l findings, and the location of this benign vessel tumor in the pathology o f the spleen.