Altered Microbiota is Related Increased Infection Rates After Traumatic Splenectomy

The spleen is crucial in regulating immune homoeostasis through its ability to link innate and adaptive immunity and to protect against infections. Asplenia refers to the absence of the spleen, a disorder that is rarely congenital and is more frequently as a result of surgery. Splenic hypofunction, as a result of asplenia can lead a series of changes in body systems. Recent study has show an increasingly infection rate after splenectomy including abdominal infection, pulmonary infection and cranial cavity infection.

The gastrointestinal tract plays host to a diverse and metabolically complex community of microorganisms. Recent literature suggests that organisms in the gastrointestinal tract, referred to collectively as gut microbiota, play an indispensable role in the maintenance of host's homeostasis. Study has proved a potential correlation between microbiota and immune system. Lymphocyte, in either peripheral circulation or mesenteric lymph node, altered can lead to an composition change in microbiota.

Investigators suppose that this phenomenon can be associated with the alteration of the resident commensal microenvironment after splenectomy compared to commensal communities. It's investigators' aim to discover if any difference of gut microbiota is exist in patients who suffer from traumatic splenectomy compared with normal people, ultimately aim toreduce and mitigation infection rate through controlling gut microbiota.