[Retroperitoneal hematoma during heparin therapy. Comments on 3 cases].

The authors review the literature during the past ten years relating to the onset of retroperitoneal hemorrhage during heparin treatment. The phenomenon may be attributed to a thrombotic genesis involving the adrenal glands and may or may not be correlated to the presence of heparin-induced immune phenomena. The severity of the phenomenon is readily understood: given that the pathology is heparin-dependent, suspension of heparin treatment is the first main step to be taken; this is evidently a cause of risk in relation to the pathology that imposes the use of heparin.