Accepted Answer

The spleen is frequent injured in high speed blunt trauma, like car accidents.

It also can bleed spontaneously due to other diseases, but this is less common.

Because a lot of the blood of the body travels through the spleen, an injury to the spleen can cause a considerable amount of bleeding, which can be life threatening.

It is often graded on a scale of I to V depending on the degree in injury (with grade V meaning shattered spleen).

Depending on the condition of the actual spleen (lacerated, shattered), how the capsule of the spleen appears, the amount of fluid in the abdomen, and the amount of fluid in the pelvis.


http://www.surgical-tutor.org.uk/default-home.htm?core/trauma/spleen.htm~right
(This is a British site, and they reference grade 1-2-3-4 for injury, in the US we have 5 grades of splenic injury.)

Often the higher grades, grade III, IV, and V injuries need surgery or interventional embolization of arteries to prevent uncontrolled bleeding.

The "splenectomy":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenectomy

can increase the patient's risk of infection from particular bacteria, they usually are required to get a vaccine against these bacteria. Platelets (a product in the blood that helps clot blood) can increase in the blood, as the spleen often "stores" platelets in it.

Expert:	Dr. Mark
Pos. Feedback:	99.8 %
Accepts:
Answered:	5/15/2008

Doctor (MD)

U.S. Physician/Surgeon in Neurosurgery