Splenectomy for Pure Red-Cell Hypoplastic (Aregenerative) Anemia Associated with Autoimmune Hemolytic Disease

Abstract

THIS report deals with an apparently unique case in which there was simultaneously selective red-cell aplasia of the bone marrow and an autoimmune hemolytic mechanism. The combination of continued lack of erythrocyte production with excessive blood destruction eventually led to the need for weekly blood transfusions, which were made increasingly difficult by thrombosed veins and the development of transfusion reactions. After a period during which there was complete absence of reticulocytes in the blood and of nucleated red cells in the marrow, splenectomy was performed. No response whatever took place for seventeen days, but on the eighteenth day, the first . . .