Abstract
Objective: Although many complications may occur after splenectomy, post-splenectomy infection is one of the most frightening complications. Many prophylaxis methods have been used for this condition with very high rates of mortality and morbidity. In this study, we aimed to examine post-splenectomy infectious complications, in the cases in which all the measures were taken.
Material and Methods: Thirty-two patients who underwent emergency splenectomy were included in the study. Patients were given a sick leave of 20 days on isolated spleen trauma and at least 20 days for multitrauma patients. It was observed that some of the patients had started to physically heavy work due to socioeconomic reasons despite the sick leave report. A comparison was performed between the patients who completed 20 days of rest (19 cases) (Group-1) and the patients who started to work after resting time of less than 20 days (Group-2), in terms of the frequency of postoperative infection.
Results: In Group-1, only 1 case had a simple infection that could be taken under control with a simple antibiotic, while in Group 2, in 3 patients incision site infection, in 2 patients severe atypical pneumonia requiring hospitalization and in 1 patient severe viral gastroenteritis requiring daily hospitalization were observed. Although there is an insufficient number of patients in the groups, there is a statistically significant difference in terms of the frequency of infection between the groups (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Especially in the regions with low socio-economic status, sick leaves could not be used properly. This study, showed that dehydration and malnutrition, which may be secondary to heavy work, contribute to the development of infection by suppressing the immune system, in addition to the defect caused by major surgical intervention and splenectomy in the immune system, resulting in the high frequency of infection.