Inflammation in the vein often causes symptoms of pain and swelling around the vein. Often a ropey cord (which is the vein with clot within it) can be felt and is usually tender.

In itself, superficial thrombophlebitis is not dangerous. It is important however to ensure that the clot has not grown to involve other veins (deep veins). Clot that involves deep veins can often grow and even “travel” to other parts of the body (e.g. the lungs). Clot that only involves the surface (superficial veins) rarely if ever travels to other parts of the body.

An ultrasound of the vein needs to be performed to show where the clot is within the vein and to rule out other veins being involved. Ultrasounds are harmless and not painful.

The treatment of superficial thrombophlebitis depends on the cause and the type and severity of the symptoms present.

HS is relatively common – around 1 person in every 5000 people has HS (around 800 people in Melbourne; population 4 million).

There are three main common problems associated with having HS:

There is another uncommon potential problem for people who have Hereditary Spherocytosis associated with a viral infection called “Slapped cheek”. Slapped cheek is caused by a virus called Parvovirus which can infect bone marrow cells and put the red cell producing cells “to sleep”. Because patients with HS need the bone marrow to be rapidly replacing the fragile red cells, this infection can cause a severe anaemia; patients can become very pale and sometimes even require blood transfusions. Fortunately this problem is uncommon.

HS is now diagnosed with a simple blood test. It is also important for a doctor to examine patients with HS to see if they are jaundiced or have an increase in the size of the spleen.

Most patients with HS do not need to do much about their condition at all. The bone marrow has the capacity to increase the number of red cells it produces many fold and is able to keep up replacing the fragile cells.

A few things may be helpful:

Removing the spleen (splenectomy) has been used a lot in the past in the treatment and management of patients with HS; it stops the red cells from breaking down and solves the problems of HS.

Removing the spleen has problems however – the spleen is an important organ in the immune system and patients who do not have a spleen may be prone to getting serious infections. This risk is higher in younger children but may be less than previously expected because of newer vaccinations. It is now generally recommended to avoid splenectomy in children younger than 6 years and to ensure that children who may need a splenectomy have all the appropriate vaccinations.

Another approach for some of these young patients is to remove only a small part of the spleen – partial splenectomy. This is done in a few hospitals and there is some experience to say this may be very helpful for some patients.