gms | German Medical Science

Background: Partial or complete resection of the spleen can not be considered as a high volume procedere compared to other more common operations. Nevertheless in our center we have a certain caseload due to refers mostly from haemato-oncologists for various indications. With the establishment of more refined laparoscopic technics we have shifted our operative approach to a primary laparoscopic one. Here we want to present our single center exsperience.

Method: We operated 25 patient files from January 2009 till August 2013. The follwoing parameters were evaluated: diagnosis / indications, partial splenectomy / complete splenectomy, operation time, blood loss complications, post operative pain scores, time of hospitalization and age.

Results: Partial splenectomy was performed in 3 cases, complete splenectomy in 22 cases. The age range was from 18–67 years (13 female, 12 male). The indication for surgery was idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (9 cases), hypersplenism (8 cases), spleen cysts (3 cases), haemangioma / lymphangioma (3 cases), leukaemia (2 cases). The median operation time took 122 minutes and the median time of hospitalization was 7 days. In our early series we had one case which resulted in a conversion because of an intra-operative bleeding. Major complications or re-operations did not occur.

Conclusion: In our experience a primary laparoscopic approach appeared to be save an leads to a favourable procedere compared to conventional surgery. In our institution the laparoscopic technique is the method of choise in patients scheduled for elective splenectomie.