Splenic infarction secondary to probable scrub typhus

Abstract

A mite‑borne infection, scrub typhus is endemic in India. It causes a myriad of complications with multisystemic involvement like meningoencephalitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), myocarditis and is also known to cause abdominal complications like hepatomegaly, gastrointestinal haemorrhage, acute pancreatitis, and acute renal failure. Among the abdominal organs, splenic involvement is considered to be very rare and the usual presentation in such cases is splenomegaly. Splenic infarcts are a lesser known complication of scrub typhus which has been sparsely reported in the literature. We report a case with a rare presentation of scrub typhus in a 39-year-old male who reported to our hospital with fever and gastrointestinal system related complaints and was ultimately diagnosed to have multiple splenic infarcts secondary to scrub typhus.

Keywords

• scrub typhus
• splenic infarct
• scrub typhus igm antibody