I'm a 48-year-old Caucasian male, diagnosed last week with a hemangioma in my spleen, based on ultrasound and CT scan images. At present, the hemangioma involves about one-third of my spleen. It is a circular shape with regular edges and appears to be entirely within the core of the spleen, not touching the organ walls. I have no symptoms or pain. The doctor who offered the diagnosis is a urologist I was seeing for an occurrence of hematuria. The hemangioma was found during testing for the hematuria. He is advising a wait-and-see approach with a followup CT scan in six months. Then, if the hemangioma appears to be growing, he'll want to remove my spleen.
I'm attempting to rapidly educate myself about my spleen, this condition, and treatment options. Based on the information presented on the Vascular Birthmarks website, I'm thinking that this "hemangioma" may actually be an arteriovenous malformation. I've been advised that an MRI would provide more detailed information about the lesion.
* Is this malformation an unusual condition?
* Is it likely to keep growing and compromise my health?
* Will it grow quickly or slowly?
* What are the treatment options?
* Do you know of successful alternative therapies, such as nutrition changes, hypnosis, acupuncture, visualization, etc., that have been or could be effective in reducing the growth of this object and help me avoid surgery?
I live in Oregon, not far from Portland. The Oregon Health Sciences University is our premiere medical institution. Can you recommend any physicians at OHSU who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of internal vascular lesions?
Thanks in advance for whatever assistance you can provide.