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THE INJURED SPLEEN: SHOULD CONSIDERATION BE GIVEN TO CONSERVATIVE MANAGEMENT?
Author(s) -
Hunter R. A.,
Kiroff G. K.,
Jamieson G. G.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1984.tb06703.x
Subject(s) - medicine , splenectomy , blunt , abdominal trauma , incidence (geometry) , surgery , conservative management , retrospective cohort study , spleen , general surgery , physics , optics
This report is a retrospective study over a 13 year period of 267 patients who underwent splenectomy. The incidence of associated major abdominal injuries following blunt trauma in these patients was 8%. Over half of these associated injuries were diagnosed pre‐operatively. Sixty‐nine per cent of the patients were haemodynamically stable before operation. Patients who suffered splenic injuries whilst playing sport or who were conscious and did not have major extra‐abdominal injuries or clear evidence of other intra‐abdominal injury could possibly have been managed expectantly. Such a policy might have avoided splenectomy in a substantial number of cases and thus have eliminated the risk of Overwhelming Post‐Splenectomy Infection (OPSI) in these patients.