Spleen: location, function and spleen complaints. The spleen is an organ that plays an important role in the immune system and is located in the abdominal cavity. The spleen is located in the upper left part of your abdomen, behind the stomach. The spleen is a purplish organ located on the left under the diaphragm and behind the stomach. Sometimes the spleen must be surgically removed due to irreversible damage, but you can survive without it. Other organs compensate for the loss.
- Location of the spleen
- Spleen: function and tasks
- Many functions
- Defense system
- Complaints due to an enlarged spleen
- Pain in the spleen due to ruptured spleen
- Splenic cysts
- Walking spleen
- Bijmiles
- Remove spleen
Location of the spleen in the body / Source: Decade3d/Shutterstock.com
Location of the spleen
The spleen is the most highly vascularized organ in the body, but where is the spleen located? The spleen is located in the upper left part of your abdomen, behind the stomach. The tip of the tail of the pancreas lies medial to the spleen. You cannot feel the spleen because it is protected by the rib cage. This organ plays an important role in your immune system. The spleen is a dark purple, blue-red, somewhat egg-shaped or coffee bean-shaped organ, spongy and soft, about the size of a fist. The spleen is roughly 10 to 12 centimeters long, a width of approximately 6-8 centimeters and weighs 150 to 200 grams in healthy adults. The spleen is located in the upper left abdomen, near the stomach and diaphragm. The lower ribs provide protection for the spleen.
Spleen: function and tasks
Many functions
The spleen is an important organ whose functions can be summarized as follows:
- Phagocytosis: destroying or clearing away germs.
- Formation of lymphocytes (white blood cells).
- Breakdown of red blood cells, producing iron and bilirubin. The waste product bilirubin is transported via the blood to the liver and then transported to the small intestine with the bile. Iron is stored and reused for the production of hemoglobin.
- Blood reservoir: during vigorous physical exertion, the spleen can compress like a sponge and thus bring extra blood into circulation. This squeezing may cause the well-known twinge in the side during physical exertion, such as running.
- Production of red blood cells before birth, before the period when bones are formed.
Defense system
In short, the spleen plays an important role in our immune system. This organ is the largest lymphatic organ where many lymphocytes do their work and where ‘old’ blood cells are also filtered from the blood.
Enlarged spleen / Source: Mikael Häggström, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Complaints due to an enlarged spleen
An enlarged spleen is called ‘splenomegaly’ and is not a disease in itself, but the result of an underlying condition. An enlarged spleen can occur with many conditions:
- Infections:
- hepatitis (inflammation of the liver)
- Pfeiffer’s disease
- psittacosis (parrot disease)
- subacute bacterial endocarditis (an inflammation of the lining of the heart
- brucellosis (comes from the bacterium Brucella, can pass from animals to humans, in humans it is called Malta fever)
- kala-azar (black fever or visceral leishmaniasis, the deadliest parasitic disease after malaria)
- malaria
- syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease)
- tuberculosis (TB)
- Anemia:
- hereditary elliptocytosis (an inherited form of anemia
- hereditary spherocytosis (a congenital form of anemia)
- sickle cell disease (an inherited disease of the blood, which can cause an enlarged spleen, especially in children).
- thalassemia (an inherited blood disorder in which the body produces insufficient and abnormal hemoglobin)
- Forms of blood cancer and myeloproliferative diseases:
- Hodgkin’s disease (with symptoms such as enlarged lymph nodes, fever and fatigue), and other lymphomas
- leukemia (blood cancer)
- myelofibrosis (characterized by excessive formation of connective tissue / fibrosis in the bone marrow
- polycythemia vera (a rare chronic bone marrow disorder
- storage diseases (metabolic diseases in which waste products accumulate because certain substances in the cell are not cleared by the lysosomes)
- Gaucher’s disease (an inherited metabolic disease)
- Niemann-Pick disease (an inherited metabolic disease)
- Wolman’s disease (a rare, hereditary fat storage disease)
- Hand-Schüller-Christian disease (a rare form of histiocytosis)
- Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH, a disease in which there is an overgrowth of Langerhans cells in body tissues)
- Other causes:
- cirrhosis of the liver
- amyloidosis (a rare disease in which a protein, ‘amyloid’, builds up in various tissues and organs and affects their functioning)
- Felty’s syndrome (a complication of long-term rheumatoid arthritis)
- sarcoidosis (a disease in which all kinds of inflammation spontaneously develop in various organs and tissues of the body)
- systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, an autoimmune disease)
- splenic cysts (cysts in the spleen are rare)
- pressure from outside on the veins of the spleen or to the liver
- blood clot in a vein from the spleen or a vein to the liver
Fainting / Source: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com
Pain in the spleen due to ruptured spleen
A rupture of the spleen is called ‘splenic rupture’ and very rarely occurs spontaneously. A hard punch in the stomach area can cause a spleen rupture. With a splenic rupture, the splenic capsule and the underlying tissue rupture. It often occurs with abdominal injuries as a result of car accidents and sports accidents or abuse. The main symptoms are:
- drop in blood pressure;
- pain in the splenic area (pain in the spleen) / the abdomen is painful and sensitive to pressure; and
- a lack of blood in the vascular system can lead to confusion, unconsciousness (fainting) and shock.
Splenic cysts
A cyst is a cavity filled with fluid. Splenic cysts are rare and often develop as a result of a parasitic infection. Splenic cysts almost never cause symptoms and are often discovered by chance. The following complaints may sometimes occur:
- a vague full and unpleasant feeling in the upper left abdomen;
- the feeling of having eaten a lot after consuming little food;
- (radiating) pain in the area of the left side of the chest, back and shoulder;
- shortness of breath.
Walking spleen
A walking spleen is called ‘splenoptosis’. This condition is rare. The spleen is well supported by the phrenicolitic ligament. Absence of this ligament at birth creates a so-called ‘walking spleen’, which can be fixed via surgery. In some cases, however, the spleen must be removed because it compresses other organs and causes (abdominal) pain.
Bijmiles
Most people have one spleen, the spleen is a solitary organ. However, 15-30 percent of people may have extra spleens, so-called congenital spleens. These are mainly seen in patients with a blood disorder.
Remove spleen
Sometimes the spleen must be surgically removed due to irreparable damage or a certain condition. This is called ‘splenectomy’. In principle, you can survive without a spleen, although your body will lose some of its ability to produce protective antibodies and filter unwanted microorganisms from the blood. The body is therefore less able to fight infections, especially pneumococcal infections. Practice shows that other organs, especially the liver, compensate for the loss by increasing their ability to fight infections and removing old red blood cells.
read more
- Enlarged spleen: causes, symptoms, consequences and treatment
- Enlarged liver: causes and symptoms of liver enlargement
- Pain on the left side of the upper abdomen (spleen): symptoms of spleen disease
- Spleen Pain: Symptoms and Causes of Spleen Pain
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