Hyposplenism in gastrointestinal disease.

The hazards of living without a spleen were recognised by the paediatricians in the early 1960's when they focussed attention on the syndrome of fulminant sepsis, often due to pneumococcal infection, occurring in young children within the fIrst two years of splenectomy 1. A child, well at breakfast, might be febrile by lunch, comatose by evening and dead by the following morning. We now recognise that this danger of post-splenectomy sepsis (PSS) extends into adult life and splenectomised patients remain at risk 10, 20 and even 30 years after the operation 2.