Is total splenectomy unavoidable in the treatment of splenic benign cyst?

increased morbidity rate with the danger of postsplenectomy infections. Current therapeutic strategies established spleenpreserving treatment in cases of trauma and benign lesions [2, 3] . Therefore, we consider that percutaneous drainage or laparoscopic excision should be used instead of total splenectomy as the treatment of choice for splenic benign cysts [2–6] . Besides, it is highly questionable whether the boy’s health condition would be better with asymptomatic splenic benign cyst or without cyst, but also without the spleen. Dear Sir, We commend Bai and Wang [1] for an interesting clinical image of the article ‘a primary splenic cyst in a 10-year-old boy’. They note that CT revealed a large left upper-quadrant spherical cystic mass with a smooth wall and normal splenic tissue which was visualized around all or part of the cyst. However, we wish to highlight certain issues regarding total splenectomy for benign cysts especially in young people. The spleen is important for proper immunologic function, and splenectomy carries an Published online: August 3, 2010