Splenectomy for Trauma

Abstract

The progress of 94 patients who had splenectomy for trauma, and 96 controls, matched for age and sex, who had other emergency abdominal operations were compared after follow-up periods of 4–49 (mean 26) months, with a view to identifying: any increased tendency to bacterial sepsis generally; any incidence of overwhelming postoperative infection.

There was no evidence of an increased tendency to pyogenic infection among the splenectomized patients studied. No instance of overwhelming sepsis was recorded among patients in either group.

It is suggested that apart from splenosis and ectopic spleens, additional factors peculiar to the tropics may operate to enhance host defence among splenectomized patients in these areas. Conservation of the ruptured spleen may thus be unnecessary for the older child and young adult patient in the tropics.