Why is the spleen important to the body?
The Spleen. The spleen also clears bacteria and is important for proper immune function, especially in fighting bacteria. Diseases associated with impaired spleen function include sickle cell anemia (a disease that causes irregularly shaped red blood cells) and malaria (a parasite infection of the blood).
How does the spleen affect the red blood cells?
It affects the number of red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout your body, and the number of platelets, which are cells that help your blood to clot. It does this by breaking down and removing cells that are abnormal, old, or damaged. The spleen also stores red blood cells, platelets, and infection-fighting white blood cells.
What medical conditions affect the spleen?
The spleen can be affected by numerous medical conditions; let's review a few: Sickle cell disease: In sickle cell disease, the sickled red blood cells are not flexible and can be trapped in the spleen, causing the spleen to expand. As more and more red blood cells are trapped in the spleen, it gets larger and larger.
Is the spleen part of the lymphatic system?
It’s part of the lymphatic system (which is part of the immune system). The spleen stores and filters blood and makes white blood cells that protect you from infection. Many diseases and conditions can affect how the spleen works. A ruptured (torn) spleen can be fatal. What is the spleen?
See more
How does the spleen contribute to immune defense?
Your spleen also plays an important part in your immune system, which helps your body fight infection. Just as it detects faulty red blood cells, your spleen can pick out any unwelcome micro-organisms (like bacteria or viruses) in your blood.
Does the spleen help fight viruses?
Function. The spleen plays an important role in your immune system response. When it detects bacteria, viruses, or other germs in your blood, it produces white blood cells, called lymphocytes, to fight off the infections that these cause.
Can you fight infection without a spleen?
Your spleen is important for your body's defence against germs, when your spleen is removed or doesn't work properly you are at higher risk of infection. This is very important as, although these infections do not happen very often, they can be life-threatening.
Does the spleen stimulates immune response?
Diverse splenic populations not only trap and remove blood-borne antigens but also initiate innate and adaptive immune responses against pathogens.
Can you live a long life without a spleen?
You can live without a spleen, but you may be at a greater risk for certain types of blood infection. The degree of risk depends on your age and if you have other diseases. Although your risk of infection is highest in the first two years after splenectomy, it stays high for the rest of your life.
Do you get sick more often without a spleen?
Life without a spleen You can be active without a spleen, but you're at increased risk of becoming sick or getting serious infections. This risk is highest shortly after surgery. People without a spleen may also have a harder time recovering from an illness or injury.
What happens if the spleen does not function properly?
If the spleen doesn't work properly, it may start to remove healthy blood cells. This can lead to: anaemia, from a reduced number of red blood cells. an increased risk of infection, from a reduced number of white blood cells.
What is the purpose of your spleen?
The spleen is a small organ inside your left rib cage, just above the stomach. It's part of the lymphatic system (which is part of the immune system). The spleen stores and filters blood and makes white blood cells that protect you from infection.
What function does the spleen have?
It controls the level of blood cells. The spleen controls the level of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets (small cells that form blood clots) It screens the blood and removes any old or damaged red blood cells.
What is the spleens main function?
The spleen has some important functions: it fights invading germs in the blood (the spleen contains infection-fighting white blood cells) it controls the level of blood cells (white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets) it filters the blood and removes any old or damaged red blood cells.
What happens if your spleen is removed?
Life without a spleen You can be active without a spleen, but you're at increased risk of becoming sick or getting serious infections. This risk is highest shortly after surgery. People without a spleen may also have a harder time recovering from an illness or injury.
Does not having a spleen make you immunocompromised?
1,2 Patients who have had a splenectomy or have functional asplenia are immunocompromised and are at increased risk for severe and overwhelming bacterial infections, particularly from encapsulated bacteria.
Why is the spleen important?
Though your spleen isn’t a large organ, it plays many important roles in your body. It helps remove old and damaged blood cells, and it produces infection-fighting cells to protect your health. The spleen also makes certain substances that have an important role in inflammation and healing.
What causes a spleen to be enlarged?
Other conditions that cause an enlarged spleen include: bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections such as syphilis, tuberculosis, endo carditis, mononucleosis (mono), and malaria. blood cancers such as Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia, and lymphoma. liver diseases like cirrhosis. hemolytic anemia.
How does the spleen affect blood?
It does this by breaking down and removing cells that are abnormal, old, or damaged. The spleen also stores red blood cells, platelets, and infection-fighting white blood cells.
What is the lymphatic system?
The lymphatic system helps remove cellular waste, maintain fluid balance, and make and activate infection-fighting white blood cells for the immune system. It’s also responsible for making substances that play an important role in inflammation and healing. Trusted Source. .
Why can't my spleen filter blood?
metabolic disorders like Gaucher’s disease and Niemann-Pick disease. When your spleen enlarges, it can’t filter your blood as efficiently as it once did. It may accidentally filter out normal red blood cells and platelets, leaving fewer healthy blood cells in your body.
Why does the spleen enlarge?
Many different conditions can cause the spleen to enlarge, especially diseases that cause blood cells to break down too quickly. An excess destruction of blood cells, for example, can overwork the spleen, and cause it to enlarge.
What is the function of the spleen?
The spleen also stores red blood cells, platelets, and infection-fighting white blood cells. The spleen plays an important role in your immune system response. When it detects bacteria, viruses, or other germs in your blood, it produces white blood cells, called lymphocytes, to fight off these infections.
What is the spleen?
The spleen is a small organ inside your left rib cage, just above the stomach. It’s part of the lymphatic system (which is part of the immune system). The spleen stores and filters blood and makes white blood cells that protect you from infection. Many diseases and conditions can affect how the spleen works. A ruptured (torn) spleen can be fatal.
Why does my spleen feel so big?
Splenomegaly is a dangerous condition because the spleen can rupture (tear) or bleed.
Why is splenomegaly dangerous?
Splenomegaly is a dangerous condition because the spleen can rupture (tear) or bleed. The spleen can become enlarged from: Blood cancers, such as leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and cancer in other parts of the body that metastasize (spread) to the spleen. Blood clots in the spleen or the liver.
Why do they remove the spleen?
Sometimes, healthcare providers perform surgery to remove the spleen (splenectomy) because it’s damaged or diseased. Without the spleen, the liver takes over many of the spleen’s duties. Splenectomy is also a treatment for different types of thrombocytopenia, including immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).
What are the two parts of the spleen?
There are two parts of the spleen. They each do different jobs. The types of tissue in the spleen are: White pulp: As part of the immune system, the white pulp produces white blood cells. These blood cells make antibodies. Antibodies fight infection. Red pulp: The red pulp acts like a filter.
What happens when your spleen doesn't work?
Protein disorders like amyloidosis. Functional asplenia: This condition happens when your spleen doesn’t work as it should. It may overreact (hypersplenism) and destroy healthy red blood cells. Destroying too many blood cells can increase the risk of infection and lead to bruising and bleeding.
Why is the spleen important?
Your spleen is a small but important organ. It works hard to fight infection, remove old or damaged blood cells and keep fluids moving through your body. Many disorders, infections, injuries and diseases can cause problems in the spleen.
Why is it important to remove the spleen after surgery?
While the spleen is a little-known organ, it often becomes the cause of significant worry and excitement after a car accident or other incident that leads to bleeding. In these cases, it is customary to remove the spleen, so the loss of blood can be stopped. For many, aside from being advised to have more vaccines than other individuals might, the end of the recovery from surgery is the last time they are concerned about their spleen.
Why is the spleen important?
Unlike organs that are noticed every day, such as the skin, most people never think about the spleen unless it becomes damaged by trauma. While the spleen is not as well known as other organs, it performs multiple important functions. The spleen participates in the creation of blood cells and also helps to filter out the blood, ...
What organs are involved in the fight against infection?
While the spleen is useful and does perform vital tasks, other organs in the body also work to filter the blood and fight infection, and blood cells are mainly produced in the bones. It is this overlap in duties makes it possible for the spleen to be removed without causing lasting harm to the individual.
What happens when your spleen expands?
As a spleen becomes enlarged, it becomes more fragile and is more likely to be damaged in an accident.
What is the procedure to remove the spleen?
In some cases, when there is no other option, a splenectomy, the surgical procedure to remove the spleen, is performed. The spleen can also become enlarged, stretching over time, until it becomes unable to function. It can expand over time from normal size (which is approximately the size of a small chicken breast) to the size ...
Is the spleen a necessary organ?
As the spleen is not the only organ responsible for any of these functions, the spleen is not a necessary organ. It is possible to have the spleen removed and live a healthy life. Individuals without a spleen may be more likely to contract some types of infections as the body will have fewer B cells, the cells that "remember" exposure ...
Where is Scott Sundick?
Scott Sundick, MD, is a board-certified vascular and endovascular surgeon. He currently practices in Westfield, New Jersey.
Why is the spleen important?
The spleen also clears bacteria and is important for proper immune function, especially in fighting bacteria. Diseases associated with impaired spleen function include sickle cell anemia (a disease that causes irregularly shaped red blood cells) and malaria (a parasite infection of the blood).
Why do we need to remove the spleen?
Some people may need removal of the spleen to prevent deadly bleeding that can occur after an injury, to treat diseases that cause disruption of blood cells), or to treat cancers involving the spleen. The November 23/30, 2005, issue of JAMA includes an article about children who sustain an injury to the spleen.
What is a patient page in jama?
The JAMA Patient Page is a public service of JAMA. The information and recommendations appearing on this page are appropriate in most instances, but they are not a substitute for medical diagnosis. For specific information concerning your personal medical condition, JAMA suggests that you consult your physician. This page may be photocopied noncommercially by physicians and other health care professionals to share with patients. To purchase bulk reprints, call 718/946-7424.
What is the spleen?
T he spleen is an organ that lies behind the stomach on the left side of the abdomen. It serves as a graveyard for old or flawed red blood cells (oxygen-carrying cells) and as a storage site for blood and platelets (essential for clotting). The spleen also clears bacteria and is important for proper immune function, especially in fighting bacteria.
When did the spleen injury issue of JAMA come out?
The November 23/30, 2005, issue of JAMA includes an article about children who sustain an injury to the spleen.
Do you need antibiotics for a fever?
Adults usually do not need daily antibiotics. However, if someone without a functioning spleen develops a fever, antibiotics may be needed.
Is JAMA Network Open accepting submissions?
New! JAMA Network Open is now accepting submissions. Learn more.
What does red pulp normally do?
The red pulp removes red blood cells — which carry oxygen — when they are old, damaged, or infected. It harvests the iron from the old red blood cells for recycling into new blood cells. Usually new red blood cells are created by the bone marrow, but when blood counts are low or the bone marrow is not working well, the spleen can also make new red blood cells.
What is the area in the red pulp called?
An area in the red pulp called the marginal zone contains special white blood cells known as splenic macrophages that filter pathogens out of the blood.
What is the white pulp?
The white pulp is composed of lymphoid tissue, which contains white blood cells, the body’s primary means of fighting pathogens and regulating inflammation. White blood cells act as the body’s police force — patrolling the bloodstream to find infections or damage to the body, and working together to combat it.
What happens if you don't have a spleen?
Someone without a spleen is at increased risk of severe, or even deadly, infections from these encapsulated bacteria. Fortunately, vaccines significantly decrease the risk of these infections, and are available against the most common types ( Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenza, and Neisseria meningitidis ). Additionally, it is usually recommended that people without a spleen have antibiotics that they carry with them (often referred to as “pill in pocket”) and can take at the first sign of an infection, such as fevers or chills. For children without a spleen, their doctors may even recommend they be on antibiotics all the time. Talk to your doctor about this.
How do white blood cells fight pathogens?
There are many types of white blood cells that function in different and often complex ways. Some fight infections directly, by releasing substances that are toxic to pathogens or by “swallowing” them (called phagocytosis). Some fight infections indirectly, by assisting the direct fighters or by producing antibodies that mark pathogens for destruction by other white blood cells.
What is the spleen made of?
The spleen is composed of two types of tissues: the red pulp, which filters the blood, and the white pulp, which contains white blood cells that regulate inflammation and the body’s response to infection.
Why do some people not have a spleen?
Due to injury or necessary surgery (splenectomy), some people are lacking a spleen, the organ that filters the bloodstream and helps the body fight infection. You do not need your spleen to live a normal, healthy life. However, since the spleen performs some important tasks, people who do not have one are urged to take certain precautions.
What Medical Conditions Affect the Spleen?
The spleen can be affected by numerous medical conditions; let's review a few:
How Can You Live Without Your Spleen?
Despite the important functions of the spleen, you can live without one. In some medical conditions, surgical removal of the spleen (splenectomy) might be the treatment of choice. 6 After splenectomy, you are at greater risk of bacterial infection. This risk can be lessened by vaccines and having an emergency medical evaluation if you experience fever. 7 If the spleen is removed, the liver can take over removing aging or abnormally-shaped red blood cells. Benefits and risks of splenectomy should be discussed with your healthcare provider prior to the procedure.
What is the name of the condition where the blood can not flow easily from the spleen to the liver?
Myeloproliferative neoplasms: People with primary myelofibrosis or polycythemia vera often have splenomegaly as part of their condition. 3 . Portal hypertension: In portal hypertension, the blood can not flow easily from the spleen into the liver, causing trapping of blood in the spleen resulting in splenomegaly.
What causes the spleen to expand?
The spleen can be affected by numerous medical conditions; let's review a few: Sickle cell disease: In sickle cell disease, the sickled red blood cells are not flexible and can be trapped in the spleen, causing the spleen to expand. As more and more red blood cells are trapped in the spleen, it gets larger and larger.
What is the place where blood cells are marked for destruction by the immune system?
The spleen is also the place where blood cells marked for destruction by the immune system are removed. This occurs in conditions like autoimmune hemolytic anemia (red blood cells) and immune thrombocytopenia (platelets). 2 . The spleen also assesses the quality of our red blood cells. If a red blood cell is near the end ...
Why is the spleen important?
In particular, the spleen is crucial for removing what are called encapsulated bacteria from the blood. If the spleen does not function properly or has to be surgically removed, you are at higher risk of infection from these bacteria. 1 . The spleen is also the place where blood cells marked for destruction by the immune system are removed.
What is the spleen? What function does it serve?
It is considered a member of the lymphatic system which includes lymph nodes, tonsils, and adenoids. Its major function is to remove "junk" from the bloodstream.
What does it mean when your lymph nodes are a filter?
This is normal. It means your immune system has kicked into high gear to get rid of infection. Lymph nodes are also filters for your immune system. They catch germs and dead or damaged cells and destroy them. Taking Germs Down: How It Works. Your white blood cells lock on to the germs in order to absorb or destroy them.
How do germs get under your skin?
Germs look for ways to get under your skin -- literally. They could get in through a cut, ride in on something you ate, filter through the air, or wait on a coin for you to touch it and then rub your eyes. Once inside, they start to breed. You’re infected, and it can make you feel sick.
What happens if you come across the same germ later on?
If you come across that same germ later on, your body will remember and fight it off faster, so you can get over the infection and feel better. Mission accomplished!
How does the immune system know if there is a problem?
Your immune system should know that there’s a problem. It reads a tell-tale “fingerprint” of proteins on the surface of cells, so it can tell the difference between your own cells and what shouldn’t be there.
What is the lymphatic system?
Your lymphatic system is like an inner highway that carries white blood cells through your body. When you’re sick, you might notice your lymph nodes -- small glands in your neck, groin, armpits, and behind your knees -- are swollen. This is normal.
How long does it take for your immune system to respond to a germ?
Experience makes your immune system stronger. The first time your body comes into contact with a certain type of germ, your immune response may take a while. You might need several days to make and use all the germ-fighting parts you need to get rid of your infection.
How long do white blood cells live?
Your white blood cells aim to destroy the unwelcome guests. They get their start in your bone marrow. They have a short life -- ranging from a few days to a few weeks -- so your body constantly makes more. There are different types, and they all have the same goal: to fight infection.
