Figure legends
Figure 1. Trends of haemoglobin levels and platelet counts before and after splenectomy. Hypersplenism caused by the exacerbation in splenomegaly spurred anaemia (5.4 g/dL at the lowest) and thrombocytopenia (26 × 103/μL at the lowest). The relationship between splenomegaly and anaemia is shown. In order to overcome treatment-resistant haemolytic anaemia, we decided to perform splenectomy. After splenectomy, the haemoglobin gradually normalized to 11–15 g/dL and platelet counts also normalized to 230–400 × 103/μL. The left vertical axis indicates both the length of the spleen edge from the costal margin (cm, gray area), and haemoglobin levels (g/dL, blue closed triangles and dotted line). The right vertical axis indicates platelet counts (×103/μL, purple closed circles and straight lines). Red arrows represent red blood cell transfusions.