Spleen

Looks like

A soft purple organ the size of a fist under the left ribs, easily torn in a crash.

What it does

Filters worn-out red cells and helps the immune system answer bacteria with capsules.

Keeping it well

Seatbelts and care in contact sport. Without a spleen, pneumococcal infection is genuinely dangerous, which is what the vaccines and stand-by antibiotics are for.

Its parts

• Red pulp
• White pulp

Related conditions

• Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia
• Brucellosis
• Chronic leukaemia (CML & CLL)
• Essential thrombocythaemia
• G6PD deficiency (favism)
• Hereditary spherocytosis
• Immune thrombocytopenia
• Infectious mononucleosis
• Leishmaniasis
• Lymphoma (Hodgkin & non-Hodgkin)
• Malaria
• Myelofibrosis
• Polycythaemia vera
• Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
• Sickle cell disease
• Thalassaemia