What is a spleen and do you need one to function normally?

[Stark]

Any MD's around?

 

[Electric Amish]

The Spleen

amish

 

[Killbat]

Search before you ask

 

[yakko]

Our friend the spleen.

 

[GasX]

It's a superflous bag of blood. You don't need one, but if yours gets punctured you will wish you had a healthy one.

and as the others said, click here

 

[Electric Amish]

It's not superflous. It monitors the blood for infection and other foreign particles. When found, it removes them.

amish

 

[Eug]

<< It's a superflous bag of blood. >>


While one doesn't need a spleen to live normal life, without a spleen one is at higher risk of developing certain infections. Extra immunization shots take care of this however.

 

[GasX]

perhaps superfluous is a bit extreme, but it is not like a liver, heart, lungs or brain...

 

[Stark]

i looked here and didn't see anything that answered my questions. Is the spleen like a kidney (important), or is it like an appendix (not really important).

 

[Stark]

Ah, Eug is correct. According to Dr. Dean Edell, risk associated of spleen removal is: &quot;increased risk for infection after splenectomy (children are at higher risk for this complication).&quot;

 

[BDawg]

You don't need the spleen to live, but it sure makes life easier.

It's much more useful than an appendix.

 

[IcemanJer]

Did you know that race horses can actually contract their spleen during races to get more Red Blood Cells into their circulation to feed oxygens to their muscles? Pretty fascinating stuff..

 

[Ameesh]

do you not like your spleen? i'll take it, im sure some idiot will buy it on egay.

 

[IcemanJer]

<< perhaps superfluous is a bit extreme, but it is not like a liver, heart, lungs or brain... >>


Who said you need a brain to function normally..?

 

[Stark]

Ameesh,

we're discussing hockey here at work.

 

[IcemanJer]

How's Forsberg? Outta the hospital yet or no?

 

[Spix]

He´ll recover but he´ll miss the rest of the playoffs

 

[freebee]

You have to have a spleen to pricematch effectively. The medical community is yet unaware of this fact. I believe we should call it the freebee effect.

 

[Mday]

riiiiiiight andy...


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the spleen is like your pinky. you'll live fine without one, but it's annoying ;-)