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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Splenectomy is a surgical procedure to remove your spleen — an organ that sits under your rib cage on the left side of your abdomen. The spleen helps fight infection and filters unneeded material, such as old or damaged blood cells. Although your bone marrow produces most of your blood products, the spleen also produces red blood cells and certain types of white blood cells.
The most common reason for splenectomy is to treat a ruptured spleen, often caused by an abdominal injury. Splenectomy may be used to treat other conditions, including enlarged spleen (splenomegaly), some blood disorders, certain cancers, infection, and noncancerous cysts or tumors.
Splenectomy is most commonly performed using a tiny video camera and special surgical tools (laparoscopic splenectomy).
- Splenomegaly. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/hematology_and_oncology/spleen_disorders/splenomegaly.html. Accessed May 15, 2012.
- Landaw SA, et al. Approach to the adult patient with splenomegaly and other splenic disorders. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed May 15, 2012.
- Hoffman R, et al. Hematology: Basic Principles and Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?about=true&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06715-0..X5001-8--TOP&isbn=978-0-443-06715-0&uniqId=230100505-56. Accessed May 15, 2012.
- Maurus CF. Laparoscopic versus open splenectomy for nontraumatic diseases. World Journal of Surgery. 2008;32:2444.
- Townsend CM Jr, et al. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery: The Biological Basis of Modern Surgical Practice. 19th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2012. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/208746819-6/0/1565/0.html. Accessed May 15, 2012.
- Patient information for laparoscopic spleen removal (splenectomy) from SAGES. Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. http://www.sages.org/publications/publication.php?id=PI12. Accessed May 15, 2012.
- Cadili A, et al. Complications of splenectomy. The American Journal of Medicine. 2008;121:371.
- Mesa RA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. June 4, 2012.
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