Pathologic rupture of the spleen in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Pathologic rupture of the spleen was the signal event in the onset of diffuse histiocytic lymphoma in a young woman. The diagnosis of lymphoma was established only after one month of observation. In a review of clinical features of ten patients with pathologic rupture of the spleen due to lymphoma, spleen size was variable, and in four of ten patients a diagnosis of lymphoma had not been suspected previously. In addition to the patient described herein, only two of those previously described survived splenic rupture.