Current thoughts and approaches of the management to the injured spleen

Abstract EN

The spleen is not considered any more to be dispensable1.

By the end of the last century, virtually none of the dogma believed to be unequivocally true 25 years earlier in the management of the injured spleen was practiced.

In this review several changes in the management of injuries to the spleen, in particularly blunt injuries are presented.

These includes: diagnosis, attempts of operative splenic salvage, nonoperative management, and emphasis of preventing postsplenectomy infection versus controlling bleeding.

Recently and during a period of less than two months, six patients with injury to the spleen (five with blunt trauma and one atraumatic spontaneous rupture) were admitted under the care of the present author.

They are briefly presented before the rest of the review.

As these cases have had different presentation and management, it was thought that the discussion will give a further account of the diversity of the management of injuries to this solid abdominal organ.