Effects of an Enlarged Splenic Platelet Pool in Hodgkin's Disease

Platelet survival studies with a 51Cr‐labelling technique were carried out in patients with untreated Hodgkin's disease before and after splenectomy. The result have shown that: (1) platelet recovery increased from 30 % to 90 % after splenectomy, indicating a considerable pooling of platelets in the spleen; (2) the splenic platelet pool increased with increasing spleen weight; (3) platelet survival was not affected by splenectomy except for a transitory shortening in the postoperative phase; (4) the thrombocytosis after splenectomy increased with the weight of the removed spleen and may, to a large part, be due to removal of a splenic platelet pool.