The limited role of splenectomy in patients with leukemia.

Splenectomy is a valuable method of management of approximately 80 per cent of patients with hairy cell leukemia who have hypersplenic complications develop; operation can be performed with minimal morality and morbidity. Removal of the spleen also provides useful palliation in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who have symptomatic splenomegaly or autoimmune hemolytic anemia; success is less predictable when operation is performed for thrombocytopenia. Splenectomy is linked with a high mortality and is of little benefit in patients with chronic granulocytic leukemia except when operation is performed as a prerequisite to bone marrow transplantation. Several patients with acute leukemia who have signs of splenic infarction and intra-abdominal bleeding develop had a short survival period after splenectomy.