Immunologic consequences of neonatal splenectomy

The hazard of overwhelming postsplenectomy infection has been suggested to be greatest in children operated upon before 1 yr of age. In this work immune functions of 3 children, splenectomized within 2 days after birth were studied. The opsonic activity of the sera of all patients towards pneumococcus was decreased. The other immunologic findings were normal. These observations support the concept that all splenectomized patients should receive pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine and in case of any infection adequate antibiotic therapy must be started very soon after the first symptoms.