Spleen

Hi all

Does the removal of spleen gurantee an increase in HB? Does the removal considered the first choice to increase the HB or it has to be malfunctioning?

 Manal

Hi Manal,

No, it doesn't guarantee an increase in hgb.  For many Thals, it helps in the beginning, but things eventually go back to the way they were.  Doctor's these days don't like to shoot straight for the spleen, and usually only remove it when it's extremely large and/or malfunctioning.  It depends on what country you live in, also.  Doctors do different things in different places.  Here, in New York, doctors don't like removing the spleen unless absolutely necessary.

I have, though, been told by a number of Thals that removing their spleen did help with decreasing the amount of blood they needed and how often they received it.  So, it really depends on the person.   

As far as I know, more people with Intermedia do better keeping their hgb up after having their spleen removed than Majors do.

yes , absolutly correct.. if the spleen is causing a lot of problems, only then you remove the spleen.. Splenectomy does not gaurantee maintaing a higher Hb.. though initially it does help.

But I think splenectomy might help a whole lot more for those with E beta thal, where some are on the borderline of intermedia and major.

shikha

Splenectomy should be opted when the confidence level is high enough that spleen is malfunctioning. Unfortunately there's no direct test to detect hypersplenism. It's always a best guess based on observing pattern for Hgb, platelets count, size of spleen etc for few years.
Spleen is a part of immune system and hence it is an important organ. Removal does not always guarantee increased Hgb.

--Hallu

my son had his spleen removed when he was 8, he's now 17.  his was removed due to enlargement.  we never noticed any increase in his hgb after it was removed.  he takes amoxicillin twice a day to replace the function of the spleen.

I had my spleen removed when I was 14. My doctors held off as long as they could the only reason they removed it was because it was "eating" all of my good blood cells (red white and platelets).

Haveing it removed has not decreased my need for tranfussions at all or elevated my hgb.

Since haveing it removed I do have to take pen-v-k twice daily and have to recive a flu shot yearly and a pnumococcial vaccine every coupple years.  I also notice that my immune system is compromised I get sick easyer than others.

god bless

I got my spleen taken out at the age of 4 and it was extremly enlarged by that time and was destroying my blood cells. It has improved my Hgb for a very short interval of time and then i started to get transfused regularly and currently i'm 30 years old i have been having a very weak immue since it was removed but the worst thing now that i got an auto immune disease which is having anti antibodies that is fighting my body instead of fighting virusses i don't know if this is correlated the absence of the spleen or not.

My spleen had 8 "lobes" (like 8 more spleens)


Aer you on any type of antibiotic?