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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Diagnosis and Tests
• Treatments and Therapies

Learn More

• Specifics
• Genetics

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Research

• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

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• Patient Handouts

Summary

Your spleen is an organ above your stomach and under your ribs on your left side. It is about as big as your fist. The spleen is part of your lymphatic system, which fights infection and keeps your body fluids in balance. It contains white blood cells that fight germs. Your spleen also helps control the amount of blood in your body, and destroys old and damaged cells.

Certain diseases might cause your spleen to swell. You can also damage or rupture your spleen in an injury, especially if it is already swollen. If your spleen is too damaged, you might need surgery to remove it. You can live without a spleen. Other organs, such as your liver, will take over some of the spleen's work. Without a spleen, however, your body will lose some of its ability to fight infections.

Start Here

• Overview of the Spleen (Merck & Co., Inc.) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

• Abdominal Ultrasound (American College of Radiology; Radiological Society of North America) Also in Spanish

Treatments and Therapies

• Spleen Removal (Splenectomy) Surgery (Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons)
• Spleen removal - series -- Normal anatomy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Splenectomy (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Specifics

• Enlarged Spleen (Splenomegaly) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Ruptured Spleen (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Genetics

• Isolated congenital asplenia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Splenic Diseases (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Splenomegaly (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Imaging features of epidermoid cysts in intrapancreatic spleen: a single center...
• Article: Association between Loa loa microfilaremia and anatomical hyposplenia in a rural...
• Article: Splenic abscess: treatment options in a disease with high mortality.
• Spleen Diseases -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Children

• Spleen (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Splenectomies (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Splenic Sequestration (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation)

Teenagers

• Spleen and Lymphatic System (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• Hypersplenism (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Laparoscopic spleen removal in adults - discharge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Open spleen removal in adults - discharge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Spleen removal (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Splenomegaly (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish