Splenectomy and spontaneous remission in children with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.
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.
Donato
Hugo
H
Hospital del Niño de San Justo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. hugodonato@aol.com
Picón
Armando
A
Rapetti
María Cristina
MC
Rosso
Amadeo
A
Schvartzman
Gabriel
G
Drozdowski
Constanza
C
Di Santo
Juan Jose
JJ
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