FREQUENCY OF HYPERSPLENISM CASES PRESENTING WITH DECOMPENSATED LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Objective: To determine the frequency of Hypersplenism cases presenting with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study done at Lahore General Hospital, Lahore during January to July 2017. In this study the cases of Decompensated liver cirrhosis of both genders and in adult range of age more than 18 years were included. Decompensated liver cirrhosis was labelled by the presence of liver size less than 12 cm, coarse echo texture and with any of the following i.e. ascites, portal vein dilatation more than 1 cm, spider angioma, gastric varices or caput medusa. The cases with decreased platelet count and on bone marrow examination revealing normal or hyper cellular marrow were labelled as hypersplenism. Results; Out of the Hundred cases of decompensated liver cirrhosis, there were total 61 (61%) males and 39 (39%) females. The mean age in the cases was 52.17 +/- 9.57 years. There were 32 (32%) cases in child pugh class B and 68 (68%) in class C. Out of these hundred cases Hypersplenism was observed in 44 (44%) of the cases. Hypersplenism was seen significantly high in cases that had liver cirrhosis more than 5 years where it was seen in 41 (51.90%) of cases with p= 0.001. This was also significantly high in cases that had child class C where it was seen in 36 (52.94%) of cases with p= 0.002. Conclusion: Hypersplenism is observed in almost half of the cases with decompensated liver cirrhosis and is significantly high in cases with child pugh class C and cirrhosis more than 5 years.