Clinical experience in classification, diagnosis, and treatment for Wunderlich syndrome / 中华泌尿外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of Wunderlich syndrome (WS).Methods Fifteen patients with WS were included from September 2008 to February 2014, and their clinical features, diagnosis and treatment were retrospectively reviewed.The most common clinical manifestations were flank or abdominal pain (15/15), hypovolemic shock (5/15), gross hematuria (4/15) and percussion pain on kidney region ( 15/15 ) .Laboratory tests showed anemia ( 9/15 ) and coagulation abnormalities (5/15).Five of 15 cases were critical patients with moderate to severe shock ( systolic blood pressure≤90 mmHg, 1 mmHg =0.133 kPa ) accompanied with severe anemia ( Hb <60 g/L ) and coagulation abnormalities.Results In the acute stage, the diagnostic ratios of ultrasonography and contrast enhanced CT for WS were 11/15 and 15/15, and cause determination ratios were 4/15 and 10/15, respectively.The latter was significantly higher than the former ( P <0.05 ) .Contrast enhanced MRI was performed in 5 cases, and the results were identical to those of CT.According to the causes made by emergent imaging, critical patients underwent emergent operations or renal arteriography plus selective arterial embolization, and the other patients underwent conservative management, emergency operations, or renal arteriography plus selective arterial embolization, respectively.The causes of WS included angiomyolipoma (8 cases), renal cell carcinoma (3 cases), metastatic tumor of lung cancer (1 case) and renal cyst (3 cases) in this study.The mean follow-up period was 34 months.One critical patient died, and all the other patients were cured or relieved.Conclusions WS has no specific clinical features.Contrast enhanced CT or MRI is the main approach for diagnosis and cause determination, which is superior to ultrasonography.Treatments for WS vary according to severity classification and imaging diagnosis.