Bacteraemia in adults after splenectomy or splenic irradiation

Between 1980 and 1985 eight patients who had had splenectomy or were hyposplenic were admitted to University Hospital, Nottingham with pyrexia and bacteraemia. Three of these patients died from fulminant sepsis, and one patient who had meningitis was left with serious neurological sequelae. All eight patients had had splenectomy or splenic irradiation for haematological disease. Str. pneumoniae was the commonest infecting organism. There were 1579 other bacteraemic episodes seen at University Hospital, Nottingham during the same period.