Wandering Spleen

[EnolaGaia]

In the space of a single day this woman's spleen moved within her body by around 1 foot.

Woman's stomach pain turns out to be rare case of 'wandering spleen'

A woman who went to the emergency department with abdominal pain soon learned the source of her discomfort: Her spleen had shifted about a foot out of place, according to a new report of the case.

This rare condition, known as "wandering spleen," occurs when ligaments that normally hold the spleen in place become loose and stretched out. The spleen, which filters blood in the body and produces immune cells, typically sits above the stomach in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen.

But when the 36-year-old woman showed up at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, her doctors found her spleen in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen, instead.

"It traveled approximately 1 foot [0.3 meters]," Dr. Alexander Wester, a resident physician in internal medicine at Michigan Medicine, told Live Science ... Wester and Dr. Ivan Co ... described the case in a paper published Nov. 18 in The New England Journal of Medicine. ...

FULL STORY:
https://www.livescience.com/wandering-spleen-case-report.html

PUBLISHED REPORT (Requires Login):
Wandering Spleen
Alexander Wester, M.D., and Ivan Co, M.D.
November 19, 2020
N Engl J Med 2020; 383:2065
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMicm2003627

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are some more facts about wandering spleen from the Rare Disease Database site ...

Wandering Spleen

Synonyms of Wandering Spleen

• Displaced Spleen
• Drifting Spleen
• Floating Spleen
• Pelvic Spleen
• Splenic Ptosis
• Splenoptosis
• Systopic Spleen
• WS

General Discussion
Congenital wandering spleen is a very rare, randomly distributed birth defect characterized by the absence or weakness of one or more of the ligaments that hold the spleen in its normal position in the upper left abdomen. The disorder is not genetic in origin. Instead of ligaments, the spleen is attached by a stalk-like tissue supplied with blood vessels (vascular pedicle). If the pedicle is twisted in the course of the movement of the spleen, the blood supply may be interrupted or blocked (ischemia) to the point of severe damage to the blood vessels (infarction). Because there is little or nothing to hold it in place the spleen "wanders" in the lower abdomen or pelvis where it may be mistaken for an unidentified abdominal mass.

FULL REFERENCE ARTICLE: https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/wandering-spleen/

 

[gordonrutter]

And here is a photograph of the spleen in question, marked with an asterisk.

 

[Lord Lucan]

Thank goodness it's a rare disease/condition. I find the thought of any organ 'wandering' to be fucking frightening.

 

[escargot]

The title suggested to me someone walking aimlessly around shouting invective.

The condition of 'hysteria' was in ancient times attributed the malign influence of the womb as it travelled around the female body, colliding with other organs and causing physical and mental havoc. A wandering spleen does all that and probably WOULD cause some invective to be expressed.

 

[GNC]

Great Lee Marvin song.

 

[Mythopoeika]

The title suggested to me someone walking aimlessly around shouting invective.

The condition of 'hysteria' was in ancient times attributed the malign influence of the womb as it travelled around the female body, colliding with other organs and causing physical and mental havoc. A wandering spleen does all that and probably WOULD cause some invective to be expressed.

To 'vent one's spleen' may be the applicable term.

 

[Trevp666]

I am never going to be able to think of this track again without using the words 'wandering spleen' instead.

 

[Krepostnoi]

By strange coincidence, I was listening to Dummy just the other day.

 

[hunck]

By strange coincidence, I was listening to Dummy just the other day.

I bought the CD as I liked the single but don't think I've listened to it all the way through more than once. It's a bit relentlessly downbeat & flat..