WORLD'S LARGEST RECORDED SPLEEN REMOVED FROM MAN IN FLORIDA WAS ALMOST 9,000 PERCENT BIGGER THAN NORMAL
The largest spleen ever recorded has been removed from a man in Florida, with the organ weighing almost 27 pounds—more than 12 percent of his total body weight and 8,800 percent larger than an average spleen.
The patient was a 44-year-old man with a history of a low grade B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder. This is where there is an uncontrolled growth of lymphocytes—a type of white blood cell involved in immune response. According to the Mayo Clinic, B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders include cancers such as Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The man's disorder had previously been treated with chemotherapy.
Scientists Have Reset Cells From a SupercentenarianREAD MORE
The patient was seen by physicians at the University of Florida College of Medicine after his abdomen had grown quickly over a three-month period. CT scans showed he had splenomegaly—a condition where the spleen becomes enlarged because of a number of conditions, including cancers of the blood.
Doctors performed a splenectomy to remove the organ, which is when they discovered it to be the largest on record. The case was reported in the journal Case Reports in Surgery in February.
"The spleen measured 45 cm [17.7 inches] in greatest dimension and weighed 12.14 kg [26.7 lbs], more than 12 percent of the patient's total body weight, making this both the largest spleen on record as well as the largest spleen ever surgically removed," the team, led by David Hall, wrote in the paper.
A 2012 study looking at the average weights of organs for men found the mean weight for a spleen was around five ounces. ...
