What are the long term effects of losing your spleen? ?!
Question: What are the long term effects of losing your spleen.? .?
My cousin got into a bad car accident and had to have her spleen surgically removed. How bad is that for the long term effect.?Health Question & Answer
Answers:
streit is absolutely right.
it would be a good idea for him to have an appointment with an infectious disease specialist - what people NEVER warn such patients about is their susceptibility (lifelong) to life-threatening infections.
He should have appropriate vaccinations for pneumococcus and meningococcus - but they will not produce a good response because they were given after the spenectomy.
Despite vaccination, he needs to know that any fever of 101F or higher is an EMERGENCY for him. He has to see a doctor immediately and have blood cultures done - after the blood cultures he should be put on an appropriate antibiotic - either oral penicillin or even better, moxifloxacin. I give all such patients a supply of moxifloxacin to keep at home -- in case he cannot see the doc right away, taking one dose of this medicine could save his life.
See an ID doc to discuss this further.Health Question & Answer
it would be a good idea for him to have an appointment with an infectious disease specialist - what people NEVER warn such patients about is their susceptibility (lifelong) to life-threatening infections.
He should have appropriate vaccinations for pneumococcus and meningococcus - but they will not produce a good response because they were given after the spenectomy.
Despite vaccination, he needs to know that any fever of 101F or higher is an EMERGENCY for him. He has to see a doctor immediately and have blood cultures done - after the blood cultures he should be put on an appropriate antibiotic - either oral penicillin or even better, moxifloxacin. I give all such patients a supply of moxifloxacin to keep at home -- in case he cannot see the doc right away, taking one dose of this medicine could save his life.
See an ID doc to discuss this further.Health Question & Answer
for the most part, people can do just fine without their spleen. the other first response is correct in saying that they are prone to certain kinds of bacterial infections, particularly Streptococcus pneumonia (a bug that causes pneumonia, sinus infections and meningitis) and Neisseria meningitidis, another bacteria that causes meningitis. she should receive the vaccinations for these bacteria. the other complications of not having a spleen are generally things that won't give her symptoms, and they would only be apparent if you looked at her blood under a microscope. Health Question & Answer
She is more prone to illness.Health Question & Answer