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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffTreatment for a ruptured spleen will depend on your situation. Some situations are emergencies requiring immediate surgery. In other situations, a ruptured spleen may heal with rest and time.
Hospitalization while the spleen heals
Many small and many moderate-sized injuries to the spleen can heal without surgery. You're likely to stay in the hospital while doctors observe your condition and provide nonsurgical care, such as blood transfusions, if necessary.
Your doctor may recommend periodic follow-up CT scans to ensure that your spleen has healed.
Surgery to repair or remove the spleen
Surgery for a ruptured spleen can include:
- Surgery to repair the spleen. Your surgeon may be able to repair the rupture in your spleen with sutures.
- Surgery to remove part of the spleen. If your spleen is ruptured in a way that makes it possible to remove only a portion of the spleen, your surgeon may perform a procedure called a partial (subtotal) splenectomy. A portion of your spleen is removed and sutures are used to close the wound.
- Surgery to remove the spleen. A splenectomy is a procedure to remove the entire spleen. Though you don't need a spleen to survive, being without your spleen increases your risk of serious infections. Your doctor may recommend ways to reduce your risk of infection.
Surgery to repair or remove the spleen is usually done through several small incisions in your abdomen in a procedure called laparoscopic surgery. Special surgical tools and a camera lens with a light are inserted through the incisions. The camera sends images to a monitor, which the surgeon watches in order to guide the surgical tools. In certain situations, the surgeon may use a large incision to access the spleen.
- Shurin SB. The spleen and its disorders. In: Hoffman R, et al. Hematology: Basic Principles and Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=aboutPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06715-0..X5001-8--TOP&isbn=978-0-443-06715-0&uniq=210978719. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Landaw SA, et al. Approach to the adult patient with splenomegaly and other splenic disorders. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Isenhour J, et al. General approach to blunt abdominal trauma in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Clinical policy: Critical issues in the evaluation of adult patients presenting to the emergency department with acute blunt abdominal trauma. Irving, Texas: American College of Emergency Physicians. http://www.acep.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=8808. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Practice management guidelines for the nonoperative management of blunt injury to the liver and spleen. Chicago, Ill.: Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. http://www.east.org/tpg/livspleen.pdf. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Patient information for laparoscopic spleen removal (splenectomy) from SAGES. Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. http://www.sages.org/sagespublication.php?doc=PI12. Accessed Oct. 13, 2010.
- Schooley RT. Epstein-Barr virus infection. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/201609212-3/0/1492/0.html. Accessed Oct. 18, 2010.
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