There are many complications that follow splenectomy.
Erythropoietically, anisocytosis, poikilocytosis, Howell-Jolly and Pappenheimer bodies, nucleated RBCs, and transient thrombocytosis occur.
Desipte its many functions, the loss of a spleen has a single major clinical manifestation - increased susceptibility to disseminated infection by encapsulated bacteria such as pneumococcus, meningiococcus, and Haemophilus influenzae. This is likely due to reduced filtering and antibody production functions of the spleen.
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