• N Senni, M Gerfaud-Valentin, A Hot, C Huissoud, P Gaucherand, J Tebib, C Broussolle, Y Jamilloux, and P Sève.
• Service de médecine interne, hôpital de la Croix-Rousse, hospices civils de Lyon, université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
• Rev Med Interne. 2021 Jun 1; 42 (6): 375-383.

IntroductionSpontaneous adrenal hemorrhages (AH) are a rare condition with no consensus about their management.MethodsPatients were identified using the Medicalization of the Information System Program database, imaging software and a call for observations to internists, intensivists and obsetricians working at our institution. Adult patients whose medical records were complete and whose diagnosis was confirmed by medical imaging were included.ResultsFrom 2000 to 2007, 20 patients were identified, including 15 were women. The clinical onset of AH was non-specific. In five cases, AH occurred during pregnancy; four of them were unilateral and right sided. The etiology of the other fifteen (bilateral adrenal hemorrhage in 11) were as follows: antiphospholipid syndrome (n=8), heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (n=4), essential thrombocythemia (n=3), spontaneous AH due to oral anticoagulants (n=1), complication of a surgical act (n=3), and sepsis (n=3). In seven cases, two causes were concomitant. The diagnosis of AH was often confirmed by abdominal CT. An anticoagulant treatment was initiated in 16 cases. Ten of the eleven patients presenting with bilateral adrenal hematomas were treated using a long-term substitute opotherapy. One patient died because of a catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome.ConclusionThe clinical onset of HS is heterogeneous and non-specific. The confirmatory diagnosis is often based on abdominal CT. The search for an underlying acquired thrombophilia is essential and we found in this study etiological data comparable to the main series in the literature. Adrenal insufficiency is most of the time definitive in cases of bilateral involvement.Copyright © 2021 Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

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