A woman in Shenzhen has poor appetite and occasionally bloated. When she went to the hospital for examination, she found a cyst the size of a melon on her spleen. The cyst "occupies" most of the spleen and squeezes the internal organs. The surgical plan given by the local hospita

(Correspondent Li Han) A woman in Shenzhen has poor appetite and occasionally bloated. When she went to the hospital for examination, she found a cyst the size of a melon on her spleen. The cyst "occupies" most of the spleen and squeezes the internal organs. The surgical plan given by the local hospital is to remove the spleen and cyst together. After inquiring from multiple sources, she came to the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of Central South Hospital of Wuhan University. After careful evaluation, the doctor not only completely removed the cyst and the nearby lesions for her, but also successfully "preserved" the spleen, but also left almost no surgical scars.

24-year-old Ms. Ma is a white-collar worker in a company in Shenzhen. In the past six months, she has often felt unable to eat and occasionally had abdominal distension. She believes that it is discomfort caused by high work pressure. It was not until she had a physical examination 2 months ago that she found that a cyst was more than 14 cm in diameter on her spleen, like a melon-sized cyst. The cyst not only compresses internal organs such as the stomach and intestines, kidneys, etc., but will continue to grow and may cause greater trouble and must be removed as soon as possible. Ms. Ma went to many local hospitals for treatment and was told that because the cyst is too large, she could only remove the spleen and cyst together; partial removal of the cyst may recur soon. Ms. Ma, who is not married, is worried that once the spleen is completely removed, it may affect the body's immune function and may have potential negative effects on future maternity and childbirth. Half a month ago, after multiple inquiries, she went to the Central South Hospital of Wuhan University. After careful analysis, Zhang Zhonglin, deputy director of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, believed that Ms. Ma's spleen cyst is large and must be removed as soon as possible. But at the same time, considering that Xiao Huang is very young, if the spleen is removed only due to benign cystic lesions, it will reduce the quality of life in the future and bring certain health risks. Technically, the patient has the possibility of retaining some of the spleen. To this end, Zhang Zhonglin developed a minimally invasive surgical procedure for "splenishing the spleen" cyst and partial spleen removal.

On October 7, Professor Yuan Yufeng , Director of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of Zhongnan Hospital, performed a laparoscopic minimally invasive "splen-protecting" operation for Ms. Ma. Five small holes were imparted in her abdomen, and then the surgical instrument was entered into the abdominal cavity through the holes, and accurate minimally invasive operation was performed. Part of the spleen, including the cyst, was completely removed, and part of the healthy spleen was retained, and normal spleen function was preserved. The operation lasted 2 hours. The day after the operation, Ms. Ma was able to get out of bed and move and eat. All indicators reached normal less than a week after the operation, and they recovered and were discharged from the hospital on October 10.

"The spleen is an important immune organ in the human body, and plays an important immune regulation function. Most of the spleens in adults have no serious impact after removal, but there are still safety hazards such as explosive infections. Children and adolescents should be more cautious." Zhang Zhonglin said that even if a very small amount of spleen is retained, it is enough to maintain normal immune function through later compensatory effects. For young patients with benign spleen tumors, it is more advantageous to "cut the tumor and protect the spleen", but partial spleen resection is significantly more difficult than total spleen resection, because the spleen's blood supply is very rich, and the main difficulty is the precise branch separation of the spleen pedicle, the control of the blood flow into the spleen, and the treatment of cross-sectional bleeding, which has high requirements for the doctor's operation and surgical experience.

Zhang Zhonglin reminds that many spleen lesions in the human body have no obvious symptoms in the early stage, and physical examinations should be conducted regularly and seek medical treatment in time if there is discomfort.