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The management of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is continuing to evolve with the introduction of new agents such as rituximab and thrombopoietic drugs and the reassessment of older therapies. In particular, the long-term complications of splenectomy are increasingly being recognized.
To examine the risks for splenectomy complications, investigators used hospital discharge data for 9976 adults with a principal diagnosis of ITP to compare outcomes of the 1762 patients who underwent splenectomy (18%) and the remaining patients who did not. Splenectomized patients were more likely to be younger, female, and Hispanic and to have fewer comorbidities. The findings were as follows:
Abdominal vein thrombosis (AVT) was more common in splenectomized pat…