Objective: The spleen is part of the lymphatic system and is one of the least understood organs of the human body. It is involved in the production of blood cells and helps filter the blood, remove old blood cells, and fight infection. Partial splenic artery embolization (PSE) is widely used to treat pancytopenia and portal hypertension. The efficacy of PSE for improving thrombocytopenia has been well demonstrated. In this study, we evaluated the splenic infarction ratio and platelet increase ratio after PSE.
Methods: Forty-five consecutive patients underwent PSE from January 2014 to August 2022. We retrospectively evaluated the splenic infarction volume and ratio after PSE and analyzed the relationship between the splenic infarction ratio and platelet increase ratio after PSE.
Results: The platelet increase ratio was correlated with the splenic infarction ratio after PSE. The cutoff value for the splenic infarction ratio with a two-fold platelet increase was 63.0%.
Conclusion: We suggest performance of PSE in patients with a splenic infarction ratio of 63% to double the expected platelet count.
Keywords: Spleen; hypersplenism; partial splenic artery embolization; platelet increase ratio; splenic infarction ratio; thrombocytopenia.