New Hope for Childhood Anemias

Partial spleen removal helps children with congenital disease

FRIDAY, Jan. 31, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Removing a portion, instead of all, of the spleen helps children with different kinds of inherited anemias and preserves important immune function work done by the spleen.

In the largest study of its kind in the United States, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Medical College of Wisconsin removed a portion of the spleen in 25 children with congenital forms of anemia caused by abnormal red blood cells. The results of their work appear in the Jan. 31 issue of the Annals of Surgery.

The children, aged 1 to 14, had 80 percent to 90 percent of the spleen removed. Some have been followed as long as six years since they had the surgery and, to date, none of the children has needed another operation or succumbed to serious infections.

Of the 25 children, 16 had hereditary spherocytosis and nine had other red blood cell disorders, including pyruvate kinase deficiency and thalassemia.

The spleen serves two main functions. It produces immune cells that protect the body from infection, and it also clears unwanted materials, such as defective blood cells, from the bloodstream.

The purpose of removing a portion of the spleen is to help relieve anemia and its symptoms -- including fatigue, jaundice and vulnerability to infections -- while leaving enough of the spleen to provide effective immune function.

Partial splenectomies have become more common in Europe in the past decade, but it's still a controversial procedure in the United States.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about spleen diseases.

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