Protective possibilities of the autotransplantation of the injured spleen

The spleen autotransplantation is a conserving method that is indicated in the most serious injuries of the spleen followed by the jarring of the parenchyma or total devascularization of the organ when it is impossible to apply any other conserving procedure. After multiple devascularizing injuries of the spleen of the fifth degree were induced, 20 dogs were subjected to autotransplantation of the organ while the same number of the animals was primary splenectomized. Two months and a half after the conserving operation, that is, splenectomy, all the animals (from both groups) were exposed to an intravenous inoculation of the sublethal doses of pneumococci for the sake of perceiving immunological efficiency of the conserved tissue and comparing the mortality rate from the pneumococci sepsis between the two examined groups. The positive hemoculture and the logarithmic increase of the number of diplococcus in the blood samples are registered in all 40 animals. A higher mortality rate and a highly significant increase of the bacteria in blood are registered in the group of splenectomized animals with respect to the autotransplanted group. The obtained results point to the immunoprotective advantage of the conserving actions with respect to the classical splenectomy procedure.