biology

Wandering spleen

Wandering spleen is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wandering spleen rather than just read about it. In short: Wandering spleen (or pelvic spleen) is a rare medical disease caused by the loss or weakening of the ligaments that help to hold the spleen stationary. Symptoms and signs Although symptoms include an enlargement in the size of the spleen, or a change from the spleen's original position to another location, usually in either other parts of the abdomen or into the pelvis.

Key takeaways

Wandering spleen belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wandering spleen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wandering spleen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wandering spleen (or pelvic spleen) is a rare medical disease caused by the loss or weakening of the ligaments that help to hold the spleen stationary.

Symptoms and signs Although symptoms include an enlargement in the size of the spleen, or a change from the spleen's original position to another location, usually in either other parts of the abdomen or into the pelvis. This ability to move to other locations is commonly attributed to the spleen's pedicle being abnormally long. Physical factors may cause ischuria, constipation, as well as numerous spleen-related diseases such as hypersplenism, thrombocytopenia, and lymphoma. Blocking of the arteries and torsion (twisting that interrupts the blood supply to that organ) in the spleen can also result in abdominal pain or swelling. However, lack of visible symptoms — except in incidents of abdominal pain — makes the disease difficult for doctors to diagnose, though medical imaging techniques such as medical ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, or computed tomography can be used to confirm its occurrence. Characteristics of the disorder include the loss, weakening, or malformation of the ligaments that help to keep the spleen located in the upper left part of the abdomen.

Cause Though not a genetic disease, wandering spleen is often found at birth. It can occur in adults as the result of injuries and other similar conditions that cause the ligaments to weaken, such as connective tissue disease or pregnancy. Wandering spleen (splenoptosis) predisposes the spleen to complications such as torsion, splenic infarction, pancreatic necrosis and rarely pseudocyst formation.

Diagnosis

Treatment The usual treatment is splenopexy, fixation of the spleen, but if there is no blood flow after unwinding the spleen through detorsion then splenectomy must be performed. Although there have been few reported cases of treatment through laparoscopic surgery due to the rarity of the disease, it has been proven to be an effective surgical technique.

Prevalence Wandering spleen is most commonly diagnosed in young children as well as women between the ages of 20 and 40. Even so, the disease is very rare and fewer than 500 occurrences of the disease have been reported as of 2005, of which around 148 (including both children and adult cases) were documented to have been from between 1960 and 1992. Less than 0.5% of all splenectomies, surgical removal of the spleen, are performed due to having this disorder. In 1992, the youngest case of the literature of torsion of wandering spleen at two days of birth was reported in Lebanon, by Dr Edouard Sayad.

Media Susan Mayer, in season 2 of the television show Desperate Housewives, had an operation to fix her wandering spleen.

References

External links

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wandering spleen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wandering spleen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wandering spleen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wandering spleen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wandering spleen

In research: Wandering spleen appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wandering spleen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wandering spleen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Diseases of spleen, Rare diseases, Spleen (anatomy), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wandering spleen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wandering spleen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wandering spleen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wandering spleen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wandering spleen in simple terms?

Wandering spleen (or pelvic spleen) is a rare medical disease caused by the loss or weakening of the ligaments that help to hold the spleen stationary. Symptoms and signs Although symptoms include an enlargement in the size of the spleen, or a change from the spleen's original position to another l…

Why does Wandering spleen matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wandering spleen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wandering spleen.