Splenectomy in a child with chronic Mycobacterium avium complex infection and splenic sequestration

Mycobacterium avium complex infections (MAC) are being reported with increasing frequency in immunocompromised patients. When these infections become resistant to standard antibiotic therapy, treatment with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) can be helpful. Pain, fever, splenic enlargement, and cytopenias caused by splenic sequestration developed during IFN-gamma treatment in a 9-year-old boy and were successfully treated by splenectomy. The development of IFN-gamma-induced splenic sequestration and cytopenias in MAC-infected patients represents a new indication for splenectomy.