Cullen's sign
| Cullen's sign | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cullen's sign | |
| Specialty | Various |
Cullen's sign is superficial edema and bruising in the subcutaneous fatty tissue around the umbilicus.
It is named for
gynecologist Thomas Stephen Cullen (1869–1953),[1] who first described the sign in ruptured ectopic pregnancy in 1916.[2]
This sign takes 24–48 hours to appear and can predict acute pancreatitis, with mortality rising from 8–10% to 40%. It may be accompanied by Grey Turner's sign[3] (bruising of the flank), which may then be indicative of pancreatic necrosis with retroperitoneal or intra-abdominal bleeding.
Causes
Causes include:
- acute pancreatitis, where methemalbumin formed from digested blood tracks around the abdomen from the inflamed pancreas
- bleeding from blunt trauma
- bleeding from aortic rupture
- bleeding from ruptured ectopic pregnancy
Importance of the sign is on a decline since better diagnostic modalities are now available.