The First Elective Splenectomy

Abstract

Although there had been rare reports in the past of a surgeon removing a prolapsed spleen dangling out of a traumatically lacerated abdomen, with recovery of the patient, a successful deliberate laparotomy for a pathologically enlarged spleen was, as you may imagine, a much more recent event, with all the advantages of antiseptic surgery and anaesthesia. In fact, the first such operation was actually performed with the mistaken diagnosis of a large ovarian mass.