1 The Department of Pediatrics, The Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, N.Y.
A case of essential thrombocytopenic purpura in a newborn infant is reported. It is one of the few cases where the mother of the patient did not herself have this disease. It is believed to be the first case in a newborn infant which was treated by splenectomy. Observations are made to aid in the selection of such cases for surgery and which, incidentally, lend support to the humoral theory of the pathogenesis of the disease.
A newborn infant with essential thrombocytopenic purpura may be expected to benefit from splenectomy, providing the usual indications exist, only if the mother is herself free of the disease.
Submitted on January 19, 1949