Congenital Absence of the Spleen in an Adult

Abstract

CONGENITAL absence of the spleen is a rare and interesting anomaly that has been reported in both infants and adults. The infantile cases are almost invariably associated with serious congenital malformations of the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and pulmonary systems that are incompatible with long life. These include atrioventricularis communis, pulmonary stenosis or atresia, anomalies of the aorta and great vessels, complete or partial situs inversus, anomalies of the mesentery and accessory lobes of the lungs. In the adult, splenic agenesis is usually an isolated and unexpected finding.In a comprehensive review of the literature up to 1952, Polhemus and Schafer¹ found . . .