Hyposplenic, coagulopathic, cryptogenetic pneumococcemia.
An unusual case of sudden, fulminant pneumococcemia and disseminated intravascular coagulation occurred in a woman who had had incidental splenectomy 8 months previously, at the time of gastrectomy for duodenal ulcer. Similar cases in which there is constant relationship of splenectomy, pneumococcal sepsis, and Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome have been documented. Other similarities which are notable are a tendency for the disease to occur in women, lack of a nidus of infection, and proliferation of diplococci to numbers great enough to be seen easily on the peripheral blood smear.
D000307:Adrenal Gland Diseases; D000368:Aged; D004211:Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage; D006801:Humans; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000601:surgery; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections; D011178:Postgastrectomy Syndromes; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D018805:Sepsis; D013156:Splenectomy; D013577:Syndrome