Anatom3DPancreas & spleen
Pancreas et splen · Slinivka a slezina
Digestive system
Looks like
A soft, tongue-shaped gland behind the stomach, and a fist-sized purple organ at the left ribs.
What it does
The pancreas makes digestive juice and insulin; the spleen filters blood and helps immunity.
Keeping it well
Alcohol in moderation and treating gallstones protects the pancreas. Without a spleen you need vaccines and stand-by antibiotics.
Its parts
Related conditions
- Adrenal insufficiency (Addison's)
- Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia
- Brucellosis
- Chronic leukaemia (CML & CLL)
- Cystic fibrosis
- Diabetic ketoacidosis
- Essential thrombocythaemia
- G6PD deficiency (favism)
- Gestational diabetes
- Haemochromatosis & Wilson's disease
- Hereditary cancer syndromes (BRCA, Lynch)
- Hereditary spherocytosis
- Hyperthyroidism & Graves' disease
- Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar)
- Hypothyroidism
- Immune thrombocytopenia
- Infectious mononucleosis
- Leishmaniasis
- Lymphoma (Hodgkin & non-Hodgkin)
- Malaria
- Menopause & perimenopause
- Mumps
- Myelofibrosis
- Neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid)
- Pancreatic cancer
- Pancreatitis
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Polycythaemia vera
- Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
- Postnatal depression
- Prediabetes
- Sickle cell disease
- Thalassaemia
- Type 1 diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes