[Accessory spleen: compensating hypertrophy after of splenectomy. A case report]

The prevalence of accessory spleens has been reported to be about 7.1% in infants. When these patients undergo splenectomy without removal of the accessory spleen, the latter develop hypertrophy later in life and can reach the size of a normal spleen, with clinical manifestations similar to the ones before surgery. We report the case, of fourteen-old boy, who had splenectomy 7 year ago, for refractory and recurrent thrombocytopenia, who had splenectomy at age 7 years because of persistent thrombocytopaenia, resistant to non-surgical treatment, and who was found by conventional ultrasound study, doppler duplex color and selective angiography to have a hypertrophied spleen with sings of portal thrombosis and portal hypertension.