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Remedies for Spleen Issues

Your spleen is located in the upper left quadrant of your abdomen just below your rib cage. It's not only responsible for filtering waste from your blood, but also is an important part of your immune system, producing white blood cells that help fight off infection. Much like other organs in your body, the spleen is susceptible to injury, infection and disease. Treatment for these conditions is usually based on the cause of the problem.

  1. No Treatment

    • In some situations, no treatment may be necessary to remedy an issue involving the spleen. Even if the organ has been injured, you can often make a full recovery without treatment. However, hospitalization may be necessary to better monitor your condition and to ensure no complications arise. Your doctor may recommend you have a blood transfusion, especially when your blood count is low.

    Antibiotics

    • If you suffer from an enlargement of the spleen, it may be a result of a bacterial infection. In this situation, it's necessary to remove the bacteria from your system, so a prescription medication is often given to first treat the infection. Any medication should be taken until the prescription runs out. After treatment is completed, your doctor will check the condition of the spleen to determine whether the inflammation has lessened and further treatment is required.

    Surgery

    • With some issues of the spleen, like in the cases of a rupture or an enlargement, surgery may be needed to remedy the situation. Depending on the severity of the condition, your spleen could require either repair or removal. When a tear or rupture is small to even large, your doctor may deem the spleen as actually "repairable" and a surgery is performed to close the opening. However, it's also not uncommon for the spleen to be removed by way of a splenectomy with medium to large tears, ruptures or enlargements. While the spleen may be an important part of your immune system, you can survive quite well without it. Its removal may take a small toll on your immune system, but you should still be able to fight off infections.

    Chemotherapy/Radiation Therapy

    • When dealing with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a vital remedy to a spleen issue is frequently chemotherapy, which is the use of anti-cancer drugs to control and kill abnormal cells. Since lymphoma is a cancer that originates in the lymphocytes, any lymphoid tissue could contain these abnormal cells. And the spleen is made of such tissue, so this form of treatment may be necessary as part of your treatment plan. It's given over a course of weeks to months and may be coupled with radiation therapy, depending on the progression of the disease and your overall health.

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