Spleen

Abstract

The spleen is located in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen and is typically covered by the 9th to 11th rib. It is an intraperitoneal organ with a ligamentous attachment to the greater curvature of the stomach (gastrosplenic ligament) and to the left kidney (splenorenal ligament). The spleen is typically wedge shaped, but often exhibits a wide variety of different shapes. Due to its often atypical shape, the most accurate way to compare the size of the spleen is to measure its volume (Harris et al. 2010). However, splenic volumetry is not routinely applied in clinical practice. Spleen size is typically determined by measuring the spleen length. In literature, a splenic length of 12 cm is defined as the upper limit of normal (Stiff et al. 2009; Sienz et al. 2011; Danila 2010). Nevertheless, it is important to know that the volume and length of the spleen are variable and might not show a normal distribution (Cruz-Romero et al. 2016). A study in 1230 healthy volunteers demonstrated that spleen length and volume are significantly influenced by sex, body height, and body weight (Chow et al. 2016). The median spleen length, anteroposterior dimension, width, and volume were 10.9 cm, 4.5 cm, 6.5 cm, and 166 cm3, respectively (Chow et al. 2016).