Question

William is an 17-year old boy who arrived in the emergency room. He was playing football and during a tackle an opposing player drove his helmet into William's abdominal area. William complained of pain in his left side and had visible signs of shock including: anxiety, nausea, and a pale complexion, with a hard and distended abdominal area. As a result of the injury and symptoms, William underwent a splenectomy. What consequence(s), if any, apply in the future for this patient as an end-result of this operation? What is the role of the spleen in fighting infection?

Answer 1

The spleen is the main organ in which the body’s immune system does its work, and once it is removed, you suffer some loss of immunity to certain types of bacterial infection.This will make you more vulnerable to illnesses caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumococcus) and Haemophilus influenzae. If you plan to travel you are also more susceptible to certain tropical diseases, such as malaria.The risk of severe infections such as pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia depends on your age and whether there is another complicating illness.

Spleen's main function is to act as a filter for our blood. It recognizes and removes old, malformed, or damaged red blood cells. When blood flows into our spleen, our spleen performs "quality control, our red blood cells must pass through a maze of narrow passages. Healthy blood cells simply pass through the spleen and continue to circulate throughout our bloodstream. Blood cells that can't pass the test will be broken down in our spleen by macrophages. Always economical, our spleen saves any useful components from the old cells, such as iron. It stores iron in the form of ferritin or bilirubin, and eventually returns the iron to our bone marrow, where hemoglobin is made. Hemoglobin is an important protein in our blood that transports oxygen from our lungs to all the parts of our body that need it.

Another useful purpose of our spleen is storing blood. The blood vessels in human spleens are able to get wider or narrower, depending onyour body's needs. When vessels are expanded, our spleen can actually hold up to a cup of reserve blood. Our spleen also plays an important part in our immune system, which helpsyour body fight infection. Just as it detects faulty red blood cells, our spleen can pick out any unwelcome micro-organisms (like bacteria or viruses) in your blood. When one of these invaders is detected in our bloodstream, our spleen, along with our lymph nodes, jumps to action and creates an army of defender cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies, special proteins that weaken or kill bacteria, viruses, and other organisms that cause infection. Antibodies and white blood cells also stop infections from spreading through the body by trapping germs and destroying them.