Grey-Turner's sign
Encyclopedia
Grey Turner's sign refers to bruising
Bruise
A bruise, also called a contusion, is a type of relatively minor hematoma of tissue in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Bruises can involve capillaries at the level of skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle,...

 of the flanks.

This sign takes 24–48 hours. It can predict a severe attack of acute pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis or acute pancreatic necrosis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas. It can have severe complications and high mortality despite treatment...

, with mortality rising from 8-10% to 40%.It is a sign of retroperitoneal hemorrhage.

It may be accompanied by Cullen's sign
Cullen's sign
Cullen's sign is superficial edema and bruising in the subcutaneous fatty tissue around the umbilicus.It is named for Thomas S. Cullen , an obstetrician who first described the sign in ruptured ectopic pregnancy in 1916....

, which may then be indicative of pancreatic necrosis with retroperitoneal or intraabdominal bleeding.

It is named for British surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

  George Grey Turner
George Grey Turner
Dr. George Grey Turner was an English surgeon. He received his medical degree from Newcastle Medical School , later receiving a Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1903, and served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War...

.

Causes

Causes include
  • acute pancreatitis
    Acute pancreatitis
    Acute pancreatitis or acute pancreatic necrosis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas. It can have severe complications and high mortality despite treatment...

    , whereby methemalbumin
    Methemalbumin
    Methemalbumin is an albumin complex consisting of albumin and heme.This complex gives brown color to plasma and occurs in hemolytic and hemorrhagic disorders.Its presence in plasma is used to differentiate between hemorrhagic and edematous pancreatitis....

     formed from digested blood tracks subcutaneously around the abdomen from the inflamed pancreas
  • blunt abdominal trauma
  • ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm
    Aortic aneurysm
    An aortic aneurysm is a general term for any swelling of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal, usually representing an underlying weakness in the wall of the aorta at that location...

    .
  • Ruptured/ hemorrhagic ectopic pregnancy
    Ectopic pregnancy
    An ectopic pregnancy, or eccysis , is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterine cavity. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable. Furthermore, they are dangerous for the parent, since internal haemorrhage is a life threatening complication...

    .
  • spontaneous bleeding secondary to coagulopathy (congenital or acquired)

External links

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