The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#2I had a secondary spleen, nestled right up against my main one that I tore completely in half in primary school.
Subsequent testing over the next five years showed it, sadly, failed to become active.
For people like me, getting your inoculations is imperative. Annual gp visits help keep it in check.
As for the rest, depending on herd immunity is the answer.
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#3I had a secondary spleen, nestled right up against my main one that I tore completely in half in primary school. Subsequent testing over the next five years showed it, sadly, failed to become active. For people like me, getting your inoculations is imperative. Annual gp visits help keep it in check. As for the rest, depending on herd immunity is the answer.
Hey, those innoculations aren't the end of the story. I was involved with a patient who went swimming in a waterfall pool in Hawaii and came down with leptospirosis. He didn't mention to his primary care provider that he'd had a splenectomy (and the provider documented other surgical history, so not sure why he omitted that, probably just forgot).
His 9 friends didn't get sick. But they had spleens. He ended up intubated in the ICU and became sufficiently well known in certain circles that I have had conversations with doctors involved in his care on both coasts. Which means he was a terribly interesting patient.
You never, ever want to be an interesting patient...
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#4A housemate of mine used to call herself "The spleenless wonder." It was removed after a car accident.
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#5Shame that the article doesn't mention how we know so much about long term survival rates of people with no spleen. IIRC During the Second World War (aka WWII) large numbers of injured soldiers had their spleens removed in passing, this gave a large population to follow
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#6I had a secondary spleen, nestled right up against my main one that I tore completely in half in primary school. Subsequent testing over the next five years showed it, sadly, failed to become active. For people like me, getting your inoculations is imperative. Annual gp visits help keep it in check. As for the rest, depending on herd immunity is the answer.
Hey, those innoculations aren't the end of the story. I was involved with a patient who went swimming in a waterfall pool in Hawaii and came down with leptospirosis. He didn't mention to his primary care provider that he'd had a splenectomy (and the provider documented other surgical history, so not sure why he omitted that, probably just forgot). His 9 friends didn't get sick. But they had spleens. He ended up intub…
Leptospirosis is seriously nasty. I know kayakers who've had doctors not take their risk level seriously ("Hi doc, I was kayaking in this nasty canal and now I have flu like symptoms, please check for leptospirosis", "Nah, leptospirosis is rare and the test are expensive"). An extended stay in ICU resulted for a couple of them.
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#7Any research done to nudge these spleen cells into making other types of cells (stem)?
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#8Shame that the article doesn't mention how we know so much about long term survival rates of people with no spleen. IIRC During the Second World War (aka WWII) large numbers of injured soldiers had their spleens removed in passing, this gave a large population to follow
Does "in passing" mean they got removed unnecessarily, just because they were already being operated on, or is it something else?
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#9A housemate of mine used to call herself "The spleenless wonder." It was removed after a car accident.
I got just one extra spleen (small, one percent of the population or so have that. Edit: at least that was what the doctor told me; TFA said 20%).
I call myself "splenically superior" and argue that it obviously explains my mean personality. :-)
Re: The spleen, the strange little organ that can multiply
#10A housemate of mine used to call herself "The spleenless wonder." It was removed after a car accident.
I got just one extra spleen (small, one percent of the population or so have that. Edit: at least that was what the doctor told me; TFA said 20%). I call myself "splenically superior" and argue that it obviously explains my mean personality. :-)
The article says your chances of having an extra spleen are one in five.