Influences Of Radiofrequency Ablation Treatment For Hypersplenism On Immune Function

I. BackgroundHypersplenism refers to a syndrome involving pathologically functional enhancement of the spleen and decreased elements of circulating blood. Before King brought up with the concept of overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI) in 1952, no significant damages had been recognized after splenectomies for therapeutic purposes. Accordingly, splenectomy had been the only treatment for hypersplenism. However, the elaboration of OPSI has elicited extensive attention towards splenic functions. Data accumulated over decades have demonstrated that spleen is not only essential for life maintenance but also important for resistance against infections and tumors. With deepened understanding of splenic functions and improved operative techniques, various operations preserving spleen have emerged. However, such operations currently available have limitations and give rise to adverse effects . Hence, to find a safer, more effective, and microinvasive operation that preserves spleen is an important goal in spleen surgery. In this study, on the basis of animal experiments, we first used radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to treat hypersplenism and achieved satisfactory clinical effects . Nevertheless, as a novel spleen-preserving operation, RFA's influences on immune function and its long-term effects remain unknown.II. Study aimsIn this study we compared the RFA-treated group, i.e., the trial group, and the splenectomy group, i.e., the control group by evaluating intergroup differences in immune function, so as to provide experimental data for clinical application of this operation. On the other hand, we further collected and analyzed clinical data on RFA treatment for hypersplenism to provide evidence for improving its clinical application.III. Study design and results1. Patients conforming to the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to the trial group (17 patients) and the control group (16 patients). For both groups, immune function indices were determined using venous blood preoperatively, and 1 week, 1 month, and 6...