Post-Splenectomy

 

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.