Asplenia

Asplenia is the absence of normal spleen function, and it carries a real risk of serious infection. A related state, hyposplenism, means the spleen works at a reduced level rather than not at all. The source separates two kinds. In functional asplenia, splenic tissue is present but works poorly, as can happen in sickle-cell disease or with polysplenia, and such patients are managed as though they had no spleen. In anatomic asplenia, the spleen itself is absent. The distinction matters because care is directed at what the spleen can actually do, not only at whether the organ can be seen.