In the hematological disorders, splenectomy has multiple indications: diagnostics, palliative or curative. In recent years an increasing number of indications of splenectomy in hematological disorders either benign or malignant.
It is a consequence of expanding the list of indications for blood disorders and liberalization splenectomy for many diseases. Splenectomy increases the life span of red blood cells, decreased transfusion requirements, and is the first-line treatment in some hematologic diseases.
In thalassemia, splenectomy is done after a proper assessment of the moment when, according to patient’s age, who must overcome childhood to complete immune system in order to reduce infectious risk. However, splenectomized patients, regardless of age, are at risk of severe infection after splenectomy, which lessened enthusiasm for routine use of splenectomy in some hematologic diseases.
Fulminant infection after splenectomy syndrome is caused mainly by Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis, which can be prevented by vaccination and antibiotic prophylaxis preoperatively.
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