THROMBOCYTOPENIC PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA SUCCESSFULLY TREATED BY SPLENECTOMY

Abstract

Our purpose in this report is to add another case to the small number of cases of thrombocytopenic purpura cured by splenectomy, in order to emphasize the extreme importance of this curative measure. Kaznelson,¹believing that essential thrombocytopenic purpura was due to the thrombolytic action of the spleen, had splenectomy performed as a curative measure. The result was very gratifying. The bleeding immediately stopped, and an extremely ill patient became rapidly converted into an apparently healthy person. Not only did the bleeding stop, but several of the pathologic phenomena, relating to blood coagulation characteristic of the disease, at once disappeared. Brill and Rosenthal, in New York, determined to make use of the same method, and obtained the same brilliant results. We do not intend to discuss either the rationale of this surgical procedure nor to report on the literature and the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenic purpura. The reader interested is