Portal vein thrombosis post-splenectomy in thalassemia major patients

Abstract

β-thalassemia major is a chronic, inherited hematological disease that leads to chronic anemia in the affected children. One of the options of treatment in such patients was splenectomy; however, it is not without risk of many complications; one of them is the thrombotic events. A prospective study of 55 patients with β-thalassemia inscribes in this study. 14 patients (25.5%) had a normal thrombocyte count and 41 patients (74.5%) have an abnormally high thrombocytes count which was significantly associated with PVT (P. Value <0.001), Regarding the WBC count, it extended between 4000 to more than 30,000, in both genders with non-statistically significant differences between both genders, (P>0.05). Regarding the serum ferritin, the mean level was 2908.5 ± 1024.3 ng/ml. In males, the mean S. Ferritin was relatively higher than that of females, 3167.6 ± 1841.3 mg/dl, and 2573.8 ± 1150.6 ng/ml. The weight of the spleen was up to 1500 grams in 25 (80.6%) of males and 20 (83.3 %) of females while it was more than 1500 grams in the remaining and females and males, without a significant difference statistically in the spleen weight of, (P>0.05). The most frequent presenting symptom was abdominal pain. It was founded in 46 patients (83.6%), followed by fever in 76.4%, diarrhea in 58.2%, and Nausea and vomiting in 31 (56.4%). 3 patients out of the 55 (5.5%) developed portal vein thrombosis in their follow up period. Post splenectomy PVT in thalassemia the patient is relatively frequent (5.5%) complication that require a high degree of doubt for diagnosis early, especially in patients with postoperative pain of the abdomen within 2 months after surgery, Female gender, Large spleen and postoperative increase number of platelets are risk factors for PVT so one can initiate surveillance by Doppler ultrasound post-operatively and start antiplatelet prophylactic therapy immediately for such patients.