A research study titled ‘Do splenectomised patients have a higher risk of contracting Covid-19?’ presented by Sabhankar Saha, Senior Resident, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thiruvananthapuram, bagged the Best Paper award at the just-concluded national conference of International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA).
Splenectomy, or the removal of the spleen, is known to produce a slightly higher risk of contracting serious viral and bacterial infections. The study done at the MCH showed that patients who had their spleen removed do not carry a higher risk for contracting COVID-19 than the general population.
The study was supervised by Ramesh Rajan, Head of Surgical Gastroenterology, and Bonny Natesh, a faculty member, with inputs from the Infectious Diseases and Community Medicine departments.
