Intrapancreatic Splenule

What is an intrapancreatic splenule?

An intrapancreatic splenule is a congenital anomaly where an accessory spleen is located in the pancreatic tail. On CT and MRI, a 1- to 3-cm well-circumscribed structure is seen in the pancreatic tail that has similar attenuation, signal intensity, and enhancement properties as normal splenic parenchyma. It is asymptomatic and of no clinical significance, but awareness of this anomaly is of critical importance to prevent unnecessary surgical resection for a mistakenly suspected pancreatic neoplasm. A technetium-99m ( 99m Tc) heat-denatured red blood cell (RBC) scan or a 99m Tc sulfur colloid scan may be performed as needed to confirm this diagnosis, because splenic tissue will demonstrate uptake of these radiotracers 

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