Effectiveness of partial splenic embolization as treatment for hypersplenism in thalassaemia major: A 7‐year follow up

Abstract

Partial splenic embolization is an alternative procedure to total splenectomy in patients with hypersplenism, and was performed in 10 patients with beta‐thalassaemia major who were then followed for 5 to 7 years. The results were compared with those of a 7‐yr follow‐up of 6 splenectomized thalassaemics. The blood consumption decreased and the leucocyte counts increased in both groups of patients. However, after partial splenic embolization, severe thrombocytosis — which is typical of splenectomized patients — did not develop and there were no severe complications from the operation, such as infections or reappearance of hypersplenism. In addition, the minor surgical injury and avoidance of abdominal scars were further advantages of partial splenic embolization over total splenectomy.

Splenic artery embolization as a bridge to splenectomy in severe transfusion-refractory thrombocytopenia secondary to myelodysplastic syndrome

“…The procedure's full therapeutic potential has been increasingly studied over just the past decade, with the majority of literature reported in liver disease with cirrhosis and portal hypertension-related hypersplenism. It has been reported as both a palliative and curative procedure in treatment of pathologic hyperslenism as seen in cases of chronic ITP [23,24] , paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria [25,26] , thalassemia [27,28] , gaucher's disease [29,30] , cirrhosis [21,31,32] , hereditary spherocytosis [33] , and renal transplant recipients [34] . SAE is even now being advocated as indicated in cases of cytopenias limiting treatment options in cancer patients such as colorectal, pancreatic or hepatocellular carcinoma, where treatment with marrow suppressive chemotherapeutics are vital [35] .…”

Partial Splenic Embolization as an Alternative to Splenectomy in Hypersplenism – Single Center Experience in 16 Years

“…Several diseases are mentioned in literature that are indications for partial splenic embolization, the most common being hypersplenism due to hematological diseases i. e. thalassemia [29,30,36] or osteomyelosclerosis, but also due to portal hypertension [2,26,27,39] , cystic fi brosis [1] or in chronic hemodialysis. Additional indications are chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, idiopathic splenic enlargement and posttraumatic splenic hemorrhage [14 -17, 23, 31, 36, 40] .…”