Complications after therapeutic splenectomy for hematologic disease in adults

221 patients were treated by splenectomy for various hematologic disorders, including immunologic thrombocytopenia (80 cases), hereditary spherocytosis (15 cases), immune hemolytic anemia (25 cases), chronic lymphatic leukemia (27 cases), lymphosarcoma (27 cases), myelofibrosis (11 cases) and pancytopenia/aplastic anemia (14 cases). There were 8 postoperative deaths (3.6%), and 49 patients (22%) had postoperative complications, mainly infections and bleeding. Complications were more frequent in cases of massive splenomegaly (greater than or equal to 1 000 g) (65 cases), severe thrombocytopenia (less than 20 X 10(6)/1) (51 cases), and leukemia. Late postsplenectomy fulminant infection was seen in 8 patients (3.6%) for a mean follow up of 5.3 years. We conclude that splenectomy is sufficiently well tolerated even by severely ill patients to make it applicable as a therapeutic modality in the various hematologic disorders presently studied.