Would anyone recommend having spleen removed.

I been having low platelet counts for a year, I am now taking Nplate and it hasn't been able to stabilize my counts, my doctor recommended that I have my spleen removed. Has anyone had their spleen removed and had their platelets go back to normal?

Hi Paula. How long have you been using N-Plate and what are your counts? What else have you tried?

Splenectomies sometimes work, but not always. Sometimes they seem to work initially, then counts fall days, weeks or years later. Since N-Plate and Promacta came out as treatments, splenectomy seems to be getting obsolete since those other treatments work the majority of the time.

I been on Nplate along with prednisone since Dec 19, 2014. I was getting the shot every week for about a couple of months then my platelets went really high and the doctors starting giving me the shot every other week.my platelets went up to like 450. Then to 250. And would go up and down today my platelets are at 8,000 today. which they have been lower in the past I have tooken rutuxin, IGIV, have had platelet transfusion, just can't seen to get my platelets to a stable level. My doctor which is hematologist recommends that I get my spleen removed. Which I don't want to go that route, but I am also tierd of coming to the doctor and getting cbc's for the past year and have been hospitalized 4 time since October of 2014. Just don't know what to do.

When I was using Nplate I found that using prednisolone along with it was hopeless. It would make my count go high and the Nplate dose then had to be dropped or stopped and my count would go back down. And off we'd go again. So I told the doctor that I didn't want to take the steroids again no matter what my count and from then on just highering and lowering the Nplate dose got me stable. I was able to stop after a couple of years and my count has been high enough on its own since.

I had a Splenectomy in 2005. I've had ITP for 21 years. It gave me a nice few years of remission DRUG free..but it also caused me to have a stroke. So just watch your count if you decide to go that way..take a aspirin a day if your doctor ok's it.

My doctors told me my liver might have started the destruction of platelets instead of my spleen.

Good luck...I'm on the promacta/prednisone train ride...not fun..up and down constantly. Wishing you some relief.