Selective use of electrolytic detachable and fibered coils to embolize a wide-neck giant splenic artery pseudoaneurysm

We report on a 55-year-old woman with recurrent chronic pancreatitis complicated by a 7-cm splenic artery pseudoaneurysm. A therapeutic endovascular treatment was chosen because of the patient's high surgical risk. Initial embolization with fibered coils succeeded in thrombosing the aneurysm lumen, but the aneurysm neck remained patent. Further embolization was achieved with two detachable Gugliemi Detachable Coils (GDCs) deployed across the aneurysm neck, successfully thrombosing the residual aneurysm. GDCs complement the more thrombogenic traditional fibered coils and should be used advantageously in critical locations to embolize difficult splenic artery pseudoaneurysms.