Response of traumatized splenectomized patients to immediate vaccination with polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine.

In recent years the syndrome of overwhelming post-splenectomy sepsis has been increasingly reported in adults. Since more than 50% of these infections are caused by pneumococcus these post-splenectomy patients are considered a suitable group to receive the pneumococcal vaccine. Previous studies of the response obtained in post-splenectomy patients have been conflicting and we found no study that looked at the response to immediate vaccination in this group of patients. Sixteen consecutive multitraumatized patients received polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine 0.5 ml IM within 72 hours of splenectomy and 10 normal controls were given 0.5 cc polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine. Patients received an average of 19.2 units of blood and blood products; seven were on steroids for concomitant head injury. Antibody was measured by the radioimmune assay. Most of the subjects of both groups responded to at least seven of the 12 measured antigens and no patient in the control group and only one in the splenectomized group responded to all 12 antigens. When rate of response to individual serotypes was compared no difference was found between the two groups. Comparison of geometric mean fold rise and fold rise between the two groups for each of the 12 serotypes revealed essentially no difference. We conclude the response to polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine among polytrauma splenectomized patients is similar to that of normal controls, and that the vaccine can be administered immediately post-splenectomy.