[Clinical value of spleen autograft]

A relaparotomy for cholecystectomy in a 21 year old patient, who received a spleen autograft after a traumatic injury four years before, allowed us to describe the long term morphological and functional follow-up of the autotransplanted spleen, with a histological evaluation of one of the grafts. We point out the technical aspects of the surgical procedure with a review of the experimental background. We underline the analogy of the functional features of the splenic autograft both in the experimental field and in the clinical setting. The histological study of the splenic fragment in our case showed the same structural pattern of the experimental studies. Thus we stress the hypothesis of an effective protection of the implanted splenic tissue against the overwhelming post-splenectomy sepsis in man.