Surgical repair of the injured spleen.

Fatal sepsis has been reported with increasing frequency following splenectomy for trauma. Efforts to save the spleen were made in 17 children with blunt abdominal trauma. Two patients required splenectomy, but 15 were managed successfully by splenic repair. No patient required reoperation, and there were no complications. Follow-up scans were remarkably normal. It is concluded that splenic lacerations are usually amenable to suture repair, and splenorrhaphy, not splenectomy, is the treatment of choice for splenic injury.