Splenic Injury
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Splenic Injury
A splenic injury, which includes a ruptured spleen, is any injury to the spleen. The rupture of a normal spleen can be caused by trauma, such as a traffic collision. Signs and symptoms In minor injuries with little bleeding, there may be abdominal pain, tenderness in the epigastrium and pain in the left flank. Often there is a sharp pain in the left shoulder, known as Kehr's sign. In larger injuries with more extensive bleeding, signs of hypovolemic shock are most prominent. This might include a rapid pulse, low blood pressure, rapid breathing, paleness, and anxiety. Causes The most common cause of a ruptured spleen is blunt abdominal trauma, such as in traffic collisions or sports accidents. Direct, penetrating injuries, for example, stab or gunshot wounds are rare. Non-traumatic causes are less common. These include infectious diseases, medical procedures such as colonoscopy, haematological diseases, medications, and pregnancy. In less than one percent of cases of infectiou ...
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Spleen
The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes .σπλήν
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library
The spleen plays very important roles in regard to s (erythrocytes) and the . It removes old red blood cells and holds a reserve of blood, which can be valuable in case of

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Focused Assessment With Sonography For Trauma
Focused assessment with sonography in trauma (commonly abbreviated as FAST) is a rapid bedside ultrasound examination performed by surgeons, emergency physicians, and paramedics as a screening test for blood around the heart (pericardial effusion) or abdominal organs (hemoperitoneum) after trauma. There is also the extended FAST (eFAST) which includes some additional ultrasound views to assess for pneumothorax. The four classic areas that are examined for free fluid are the perihepatic space (including Morison's pouch or the hepatorenal recess), perisplenic space, pericardium, and the pelvis. With this technique it is possible to identify the presence of intraperitoneal or pericardial free fluid. In the context of traumatic injury, this fluid will usually be due to bleeding. Indications Reasons a FAST or eFAST would be performed would be: #Blunt abdominal trauma #Penetrating abdominal trauma #Blunt thoracic trauma #Penetrating thoracic trauma #Undifferentiated shock (low blo ...
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Ballance's Sign
Ballance's sign is used in medical diagnosis. Its indications are dullness to percussion in the left flank LUQ and shifting dullness to percussion in the right flank seen with splenic rupture/hematoma. During trauma assessment of the abdomen, "Ballance's sign" may be observed upon exam. The dullness in the left flank is due to coagulated blood, the shifting dullness on the right due to fluid blood. It is named for Charles Alfred Ballance Sir Charles Alfred Ballance (30 August 1856 – 9 February 1936) was an English surgeon who specialized in the fields of otology and neurotology. Biography Charles Alfred Ballance was the eldest son of Charles and Caroline Ballance (née Poll ..., an English surgeon, 1856–1936. References {{Digestive system and abdomen symptoms and signs Medical signs ...
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Splenomegaly
Splenomegaly is an enlargement of the spleen. The spleen usually lies in the left upper quadrant (LUQ) of the human abdomen. Splenomegaly is one of the four cardinal signs of ''hypersplenism'' which include: some reduction in number of circulating blood cells affecting granulocytes, erythrocytes or platelets in any combination; a compensatory proliferative response in the bone marrow; and the potential for correction of these abnormalities by splenectomy. Splenomegaly is usually associated with increased workload (such as in hemolytic anemias), which suggests that it is a response to hyperfunction. It is therefore not surprising that splenomegaly is associated with any disease process that involves abnormal red blood cells being destroyed in the spleen. Other common causes include congestion due to portal hypertension and infiltration by leukemias and lymphomas. Thus, the finding of an enlarged spleen, along with caput medusae, is an important sign of portal hypertension. Definiti ...
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Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity of the condition is variable. Pneumonia is usually caused by infection with viruses or bacteria, and less commonly by other microorganisms. Identifying the responsible pathogen can be difficult. Diagnosis is often based on symptoms and physical examination. Chest X-rays, blood tests, and culture of the sputum may help confirm the diagnosis. The disease may be classified by where it was acquired, such as community- or hospital-acquired or healthcare-associated pneumonia. Risk factors for pneumonia include cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sickle cell disease, asthma, diabetes, heart failure, a history of smoking, a poor ability to cough (such as following a stroke), and a weak immune system. Vaccines to ...
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Overwhelming Post Splenectomy Infection
An overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI) is a rare but rapidly fatal infection occurring in individuals following Splenectomy, removal (or Asplenia, permanent dysfunction) of the spleen. The infections are typically characterized by either meningitis or sepsis, and are caused by bacterial capsule, encapsulated organisms including ''Streptococcus pneumoniae''. It is a medical emergency and requires immediate treatment. Death has been reported to occur within 12 hours. The spleen is necessary for protection against Bacterial capsule, encapsulated bacteria (see Mechanism) and as such when removed by splenectomy it can lead to rapid unchallenged infection by encapsulated bacteria. The rapid progression from Influenza-like illness, mild viral symptoms to sepsis is one of the things that makes OPSI particularly dangerous. Another source of infection are species of ''Babesia'', which are tick-borne parasites that cause babesiosis. Infection with ''Capnocytophaga canimorsus'' afte ...
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Splenectomy
A splenectomy is the surgical procedure that partially or completely removes the spleen. The spleen is an important organ in regard to immunological function due to its ability to efficiently destroy encapsulated bacteria. Therefore, removal of the spleen runs the risk of overwhelming post-splenectomy infection, a medical emergency and rapidly fatal disease caused by the inability of the body's immune system to properly fight infection following splenectomy or asplenia. Common indications for splenectomy include trauma, tumors, splenomegaly or for hematological disease such as sickle cell anemia or thalassemia. Indications The spleen is an organ located in the abdomen next to the stomach. It is composed of red pulp which filters the blood, removing foreign material, damaged and worn out red blood cells. It also functions as a storage site for iron, red blood cells and platelets. The rest (~25%) of the spleen is known as the white pulp and functions like a large lymph node bein ...
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Contact Sport
Contact sports are sports that emphasize or require physical contact between players. Some sports, such as mixed martial arts, are scored on impacting an opponent, while others, including rugby football, gridiron football and Australian rules football, require tackling of players. These sports are often known as full-contact, as the sport cannot be undertaken without contact. Some sports, such as baseball and kho-kho, only allow physical contact in the form of tagging (lightly touching) opponents. Some contact sports have non-contact variations (such as flag football for American football) which replace tackling and other forms of contact with alternative methods of interacting with an opponent, such as removing a flag from a belt worn by the opponent. Other sports may have contact, but such events are illegal under the rules of the game and are incidental or accidental and do not form part of the sport. It can also include impact via a piece of sporting equipment, such as bein ...
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Diagnostic Peritoneal Lavage
Diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL) or diagnostic peritoneal aspiration (DPA) is a surgical diagnostic procedure to determine if there is free floating fluid (most often blood) in the abdominal cavity. Indications This procedure is performed when intra-abdominal bleeding (hemoperitoneum), usually secondary to trauma, is suspected. In a hemodynamically unstable patient with high-risk mechanism of injury, peritoneal lavage is a means of rapidly diagnosing intra-abdominal injury requiring laparotomy, but has largely been replaced in trauma care by the use of a focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST scan) due to its repeatability, non-invasiveness and non-interference with subsequent computed tomography (CT scan). Abdominal CT and contrast duodenography may complement lavage in stable patients, but in an unstable or uncooperative persons, these studies are too time-consuming or require ill-advised sedation. Magnetic resonance imaging is extremely accurate for the anatom ...
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Peritoneum
The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesothelium supported by a thin layer of connective tissue. This peritoneal lining of the cavity supports many of the abdominal organs and serves as a conduit for their blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves. The abdominal cavity (the space bounded by the vertebrae, abdominal muscles, diaphragm, and pelvic floor) is different from the intraperitoneal space (located within the abdominal cavity but wrapped in peritoneum). The structures within the intraperitoneal space are called "intraperitoneal" (e.g., the stomach and intestines), the structures in the abdominal cavity that are located behind the intraperitoneal space are called "retroperitoneal" (e.g., the kidneys), and those structures below the intraperitoneal space are called "subp ...
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