Although the spleen has been to have those function of hematopoiesis, filtration of blood elements or bacteria and production of antibody, the exact role of immunologic defense has not yet been fully known. Splenectomy has been used as principle operative procedure for surgical splenic disease or trauma but recently many investigators reported that severe bacterial infection and sepsis were complicated after splenectomy especially in children.
The preservation of splenic function by conservative treatment or splenorrhaphy are clinically recommended as far as possible even trend of splenic surgery. When splenectomy is inevitable, even autoimplantation of splenic tissue has been recommended. In order to find out the viability of the autoimplanted spleen, the preferable site for splenic autograft, the change of hematologic finding and serum gamma globulin by autoimplantation of splenic tissue after splenctomy, authors autoimplanted splenic tissue into omentum and retroperitomeum in splectomized rats.
The experimental animals were divided into three groups: normal group having laparatomy incision only (10 rats), splenectomy group (21 rats) and spleen autoimplantation group (42 rats).
During experimental period, authors observed gross and microscopic findings of implanted tissue, serial hemoglobin, peripheral blood smear, white blood cell count, platelet count and gamma globulin change by serum electrophoresis in each group.
The experimental results were as follows:
1) Most of implanted splenic tissue shows necrotic change and begin to regenerate the reticular cell in the peripheral zone of splenic graft at 2 wks of implantation.
2) The regeneration and differentiation of the splenic graft of retroperitoneal group are delayed than that of omental group at 6 weeks after omental splenic autoimplantation, the microscopic structure of transplanted spleen is indistinguishable from the structure of the normal spleen.
3) The vascularity between splenic graft and omentum gradually increased in number and
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