This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Splenectomy

Authoring team

Splenectomy is the removal of the spleen.

This can occur in three different ways:

  • planned, where prophylactic measures can be used to prevent later complications
  • traumatic, where the spleen is damaged in an accident or during surgery and so needs removal; no prophylaxis has taken place before the removal
  • autosplenectomy, which refers to the physiological - but not anatomical - loss of the spleen, occurring in some conditions, for example sickle cell anaemia where chronic damage to the spleen results in atrophy

Reference

  1. Yi S et al. Splenectomy. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. 2024 Jan.

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page