A primary splenic cyst in a 10-year-old boy.

upper quadrant spherical cystic mass with a smooth wall. Normal splenic tissue is visualized around all or part of the cyst. Indications for surgical treatment of splenic cysts include all symptomatic cysts and cysts larger than 5 cm [2] . In our case, a safe complete total splenectomy was performed because an infected primary cyst could not be ruled out and the cyst was located in the splenic hilum. A 10-year-old boy presented with an asymptomatic lump in the left hypochondrial region of 10 days duration. No previous trauma was reported. Computerized tomography confirmed the splenic localization of the cyst and demonstrated almost total displacement of the remaining splenic parenchyma ( fig. 1 ). At laparotomy, a huge splenic cyst was revealed, located in the middle of the splenic parenchyma with the functional splenic tissue pushed to the periphery ( fig. 2 ). Splenic cyst is an uncommon disease in surgical practice in children. It can either be parasitic due to hydatid disease or nonparasitic which may be primary or secondary [1] . A diagnosis of splenic cyst can be easily made by abdominal CT scan in most cases. CT revealed a large left Published online: July 8, 2009