title: Splenectomy and spontaneous remission in children with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.
abstract: Two hundred thirty of 696 evaluable children were identified as having chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Splenectomy was performed in 30 (13%), achieving remission in 22 (73%). Favorable response was associated to higher initial platelet count. Spontaneous remission was achieved by 53/200 non-splenectomized patients (26.5%), up to 10 years from diagnosis. More than half of them recovered between 6th and 12th month from diagnosis. The recovery rate was significantly higher (P=0.03) in children aged<9 years (31.2%) than in older children (14.6%). No reliable factor predictive of response in individual cases is still available.
authors.affiliation: Hospital del Niño de San Justo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. hugodonato@aol.com
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Picón
authors.forename: María Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rapetti
authors.forename: Amadeo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosso
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schvartzman
authors.forename: Constanza
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drozdowski
authors.forename: Juan Jose
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Di Santo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010976:Platelet Count; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D012074:Remission Induction; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013156:Splenectomy; D016896:Treatment Outcome