When Is Spleen Removal Necessary?
- An injured spleen: When the spleen has been ruptured or it has been injured then the doctors may recommend to get it removed.
- Enlarged spleen: When there is an enlarged spleen mostly which has been covered with viral infections for example syphilis then it becomes very much necessary to perform a surgery to get that spleen removed.
- Cancer: The doctor can also recommend to go in for removal of the spleen in a bid to prevent the cancerous cells or those large cysts from damaging the spleen. Leukemia is considered to be a type of blood cancer which is known to affect the cells that often help the body to fight off any infection
- Any kind of blood disorder: There are various blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia, polycythemia vera and hemolytic anemia wherein it becomes necessary to get the spleen removed.Few of the other blood disorders would include thalassemia, hereditary spherocytosis, hereditary elliptocytosis, hereditary nonspherocytosis. It can also be when there are certain blood vessel disorders which include clotting of the blood in the blood vessel of the spleen and aneurysm.
- Liver Cirrhosis: Those individuals who have been suffering from liver cirrhosis are also likely to be recommended to go in for removal of the affected part of the spleen.
- Thrombosis: This is known to be the blood clot which is said to prevent the blood from reaching to the heart through the vessels hence it can also lead to removal of the spleen.
How is the process of spleen removal carried out?
In case if the doctor thinks that you are suffering from an injured spleen or ruptured spleen and also you have signs of massive form of internal bleeding or there are unstable vital signs which can include dip in the blood pressure and the doctor can recommend to go in for spleen removal surgery. Before the doctor looks to perform the surgery for removal of the spleen, there would be several tests performed on the individual. These tests are mainly carried out for ascertaining if the option of surgery is the correct option for the individual wherein it does not bear any risks to the health of the individual. Those tests would include blood tests, physical examination and many other tests.There would be certain tests carried out for checking the abdominal as well as the chest region. The exact type of tests to be performed is completely dependent on the individual’s age and the medical condition but few of those test would include CT scan, MRI or chest X-ray.
The individual would be first put under general anesthesia before the doctor would look to perform the surgery of opening up the splenectomy or the laparoscopic splenectomy. When the individual would be given the general anesthesia there are chances that it can also lead to blood clotting, bleeding, getting certain kind of reactions towards certain type of medications or having troubles with breathing. There are two methods of performing the spleen removal surgery and they are laparoscopic surgery or the open surgery. Laparoscopic is less invasive than the surgery one and it mostly results in less pain as well as speedy recovery as well as a shorter hospital stay.
Risk of Surgical method: There can be occurrence of a blood clot in the partial vein which is also a very important vein that helps in delivering of the blood to the liver. Few of the other possible risks associated with surgical approach are collapsing of the lung, the body getting prone or there is an increase in the risk of any kind of infections and hernia issues.
