The injured spleen: should consideration be given to conservative management?

This report is a retrospective study over a 13 year period of 267 patients who underwent splenectomy. The incidence of associated major abdominal injuries following blunt trauma in these patients was 8%. Over half of these associated injuries were diagnosed pre-operatively. Sixty-nine per cent of the patients were haemodynamically stable before operation. Patients who suffered splenic injuries whilst playing sport or who were conscious and did not have major extra-abdominal injuries or clear evidence of other intra-abdominal injury could possibly have been managed expectantly. Such a policy might have avoided splenectomy in a substantial number of cases and thus have eliminated the risk of Overwhelming Post-Splenectomy Infection (OPSI) in these patients.