EDITORIAL

Pulmonary hypertension after splenectomy

Pulmonary hypertension after splenectomy: a consequence of loss of the splenic filter or is there something more?

A J Peacock

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor A J Peacock
Scottish Pulmonary Vascular Unit, Western Infirmary, Glasgow G11 6NT, UK

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The exact mechanism by which pulmonary hypertension develops after splenectomy remains unclear

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Keywords: chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension; pulmonary arterial hypertension; splenectomy; venous thromboembolic disease

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a syndrome—not a disease—and has a number of causes.¹ Included in these causes are a wide range of pathoaetiologies such as HIV infection, portopulmonary hypertension, intracardiac shunt, chronic thromboembolic disease, hypoxic lung disease, connective tissue disease, idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, and familial pulmonary hypertension associated with mutation of the BMPR2 gene.

In this issue of Thorax Jaïs et al² have examined the clinical background of 257 patients referred to their centre for treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). They found that 8.6% of the patients had a history of splenectomy compared with 2.5% of patients with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPH) and 0.4% in the general population. They concluded that splenectomy alone had caused thromboembolism and hence the pulmonary hypertension in these patients. But is this true?

Chronic thromboembolic disease has been defined as "pulmonary hypertension caused by the absence of thrombus resolution . . . [Full text of this article]

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