!n our locality, splenectomy is frequently done for bilharziasis and its complications. It can be done as isolated operation or in conjunction with devascularization. Over a period of 20 years ending in December 2000, fifty-three patients were submitted for left pulmonary resections due to postsple-nectomy complications in the De-partement of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at Mansoura University Hospitals. Thirty-two patients (60.4%) were males and 21 (39.6%) were females. Their ages range from 18 to 46 years (mean 34.9 ± 6.5 years).
Splenectomy was done for all patients because of bilharziasis. All patients had postsplenectomy subphe-renic collection and in 42 of them (79.2%) the abscess was improperly managed. The elapsed time between
splenectomy and start of respiratory symptoms ranged from 9 months to 13 years (mean 4.8 ± 2.9 years). The main respiratory presentations were productive cough with occasional hemoptysis that occurred in 23 patients (43.4%), suppurative syndrome in 18 (34%), and recurrent hemoptysis in 12 patients (22.6%). Radiological examination revealed bronchiectatic changed affecting the left lower lobe in 34 patients (64.2%) for whorne lo-bectomy was done. The left lower lobe with the lingulae were affected in 19 patients (35.8%), 18 of them underwent lower lobectomy and lingu-lectomy, and in one patient left pneu-monectomy was done because of massive vascular adhesions and accidental pulmonary vascular injury. Foreign bodies were found in 20 cases (37.7%) in the form of abdominal towels in 2, corrugated rubber drain in