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.