Case 1000-- A Male with Recent Traumatic Splenectomy

Tanner J. Freeman MD, PhD and Stephanie L. Mitchell, PhD, D (ABMM)
Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA


CLINICAL HISTORY

The patient was a 20-30 years old male who presented to the emergency department with 5-day history of fever up to 38.8oC, subjective chills, headache and cough. One month prior to this admission while returning from a camping trip in rural PA, the patient was involved in un-helmeted motor cycle accident. This resulted in splenic laceration and ultimately splenectomy. At the ED, the patient was found to be tachycardic, febrile (39.2oC) but without focal incision site findings or imaging providing a putative source of infection. A peripheral blood smear was flagged for manual review.

A peripheral blood smear demonstrated the following:

DISCUSSION


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