Enlarged spleen

[davianne]

Hi All, I hope you are all are as well as you can be. I have f4 cirrhosis and had my regular US yesterday, prior to my Consultant appt in June, and I was told my spleen had increased in size by 1.5 cms since my last US. Also told the consultant might want to see me sooner in view of this enlargement. Does anyone know if I should be concerned this or is it just a byproduct of cirrhosis?

David

[jojokarak]

It's a normal occurrence with cirrhosis. Your spleen gets overloaded with work because liver is buggered

[davianne in reply to jojokarak]

Hi Jojo, many thanks for the info.

David

[Kristian]

Hi David,

Increase spleen size is not uncommon in Cirrhosis. Its a sign of portal hypertension which is caused by the scarring in your liver making it harder for the blood to pass through. So yes, its just a complication of your cirrhosis.

Your consultant will probably now want to check whether or not you have any oesophageal or gastric varices to see if they need to do anything yet or whether they can just keep monitoring you. You may get an earlier appointment but don't be surprised if you don't. You may get an appointment for an endoscopy, but once again that may end up being after your next appointment as your consultant may wish to explain it to you first. Dont worry too much if thats the case. These things in the main tend to progress relatively slowly, but your consultant will have a better idea of whether that will be the case for you.

I think all I would advise at this stage would be to familiarise yourself with the signs and symptoms associated with portal hypertension and also variceal bleeding. The latter is on the extreme side and if its early days then its unlikely. However its good to be aware and prepared just in case, even though it may never happen.

[davianne in reply to Kristian]

Hi Kristian, many thanks for your words of wisdom. I will be booked in for LFT test and my 4th endoscopy before the appt with my Hepatic consultant in June. So far the endoscopies I've had have only picked up one miniscule varice and a small 5mm ulcer in my stomach. I take omeprazole for this and so far it is working.

David

[Kristian in reply to davianne]

Thats great, hopefully the varices wont be any bigger.