Clinical study on the relationship between hematocytopenia and splenomegaly caused by cirrhotic portal hypertension

Abstract

This clinical study was designed to evaluate the presence of hematocytopenia in patients with splenomegaly caused by non-alcoholic cirrhotic portal hypertension. For this purpose, we randomly selected 358 patients with splenomegaly caused by non-alcoholic cirrhotic portal hypertension and admitted to the clinical data in our hospital between January 1991 and June 2009. Among these 358 patients, 322 patients (90.0 %) showed hematocytopenia, including multi-hemocyte decrease in 206 patients (i.e., 89 patients with a decrease in white blood cell count (WBC) + red blood cell count (RBC) + platelets count (PLT)); 52 patients with WBC + PLT decrease; 29 patients with RBC + PLT decrease; and 36 patients with WBC + RBC decrease) and single-hemocyte decrease in 116 patients (i.e., 31 cases with single PLT decrease; 29 cases with single WBC decrease; and 56 patients with single RBC decrease). After splenectomy, 36 patients (10.0 %) with hematocytopenia presented a statistical improvement of blood cell to normal level (P < 0.05), while 32 patients did not have any change as compared to pre-operative one (P > 0.05). It has to be noted that 4 patients did not received any surgery. Hematocytopenia was not detected in all the patients with splenomegaly caused by cirrhotic portal hypertension, thus it is probably a complication of splenomegaly but not an inevitable manifestation. It was concluded that splenectomy could be an effective treatment for splenomegaly associated with hematocytopenia, but patients without hematocytopenia could choose a non-surgical alternative treatment.