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Q: surgery of spleen ( Answered,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: surgery of spleen
Category: Health
Asked by: mjandalimd-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 24 Aug 2002 07:58 PDT
Expires: 23 Sep 2002 07:58 PDT
Question ID: 58086
mangement of spleenectomy complication, for an example aperson
uderwent spleenectomy developed panceatic leak I am interested in
mangement of the leak.
Answer  
Subject: Re: surgery of spleen
Answered By: nealc-ga on 04 Sep 2002 06:21 PDT
 
Hello mjandalimd-ga,

After searching the web over I have found an answer to your question.
If the person had laparoscopic removal of the spleen then one study
has shown a relatively common complication of this procedure is injury
to the pancreas. The article is available online at the following url.
In this article they suggest delaying eating for several days and
keeping the patient in the hospital for observation.

http://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00464/contents/00/80054/paper/body.html

At the WebMD website they mention that trauma to the pancreas as a
result of surgery can cause pancreatitis. It sounds like from what you
said that this is a case of pancreatitis resulting from trauma to the
pancreas. There are basically two types of pancreatitis: acute and
chronic. In this case the patient has an acute pancreatitis. The
suggested treatment of acute pancreatitis is to keep the patient in
the hospital and not let them eat until the swelling of the pancreas
goes down. If the pancreatitis is severe then the patient should be in
the intensive care unit. Surgery maybe required to repair the damage.
However, this is not done very often because the pancreas can very
easily be damaged even more during the surgery to repair the pancreas.
The following url is the WebMD information on pancreatitis.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1680.53880

If you want to skip the introductory stuff and go right to treatment
of pancreatitis here is the url for treatment from WebMD.

http://my.webmd.com/encyclopedia/article/4115.20938

The following search terms were used to find this information:
Splenectomy complications, pancreatitis. 

Hope that helps
Nealc-ga
Comments  
Subject: Re: surgery of spleen
From: surgeon-ga on 13 Sep 2002 21:41 PDT
 
most pancreatic leaks, especially those in the "tail" of the pancreas
(which is the area adjacent to the spleen) will heal on their own,
eventually. Usually all that is required is adequate drainage (either
by a tube passed into the area by a radiologist or by surgical
placement of a drain), and time. If the leak shows no sign of slowing
down, then evaluation of the pancreatic duct is indicated (usually by
ERCP -- a procedure done by a gastroenterologist) to make sure there's
no blockage in the duct which prevents the juices from flowing away
from the injured area. And, despite, the original answer, what you
describe is not pancreatitis.

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