Abstract
Hassab's operation is a surgical procedure for choice in patients with esophago-gastric (EG) varices. We applied this procedure in 8 patients with liver cirrhosis accompanied by giant splenomegaly, hypersplenism and porto-systemic shunt irrespective of the presence of EG varices, and evaluated the effects of the surgery on liver function tests. A significant increase in white blood cell and platelet counts, serum total protein level, and serum albumin level as well as a significant decrease in serum level of total bilirubin and prothrombin time prolongation were observed three months after surgery. In addition, Child-Pugh scores decreased significantly from 8.5 (6-11) to 6.5 (5-9) (p <0.05). We suggested that Hassab's operation has a potential to improve hypersplenism, protein catabolism and impaired liver functions possibly through an increase in effective hepatic blood flow and restoration of nutritional state.
