Penetration into spleen by benign gastric ulcers.

Penetration of the wall of the stomach by a benign ulcer may result in free perforation into the greater or lesser peritoneal cavities. A "confined perforation" occurs when a penetrating ulcer is walled-off by an adjacent structure or organ. The commonest sites of secondary involvement are the pancreas, gastrohepatic omentum, liver, biliary tract, colon and mesocolon. Penetration into the spleen by a benign gastric ulcer is relatively rare and the literature contains few reports of this complication. We report three cases of penetration of the spleen by benign gastric ulcers. In one patient, splenic penetration was predicted pre-operatively by the recognition of splenic tissue in endoscopic biopsy material.