Splenectomy = more susceptible to encapsulated organisms
I put E. coli as its encapsulated but that wasn't the most right answer I guess?
Perhaps this is an incorrect way of thinking about this, but I always associate the virulence of Strep pneumo to its capsule, but I only associate the K capsular antigen of E. coli to meningitis (recall that E. coli has other specific virulence factors like fimbriae for UTI).
So basically, I figured that the capsule of Strep pneumo is involved in more disease processes (MOPS) than the capsule of E. coli (mostly meningitis), and thus I chose Strep.
Asplenic, think SHiN (Strep pneumo, Haemophilus, Neisseria). Do not bother with any other encapsulated organisms
submitted by โpowerfulgarbage(17)
FA 2020, page 127:
Encapsulated bacteria are opsonized and then cleared by spleen. Asplenic patients have decreased opsonizing ability and an increased risk for severe infections.
They need vaccines to protect against Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus Pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenza
mnemonic: "No Spleen Here"
regardless I got this one wrong because of a 50/50 guess between strep and e. coli. I guess they wanted you to recognize that he was at risk for S. pneumonia sepsis and therefore needed to be vaccinated, whereas there's not much you can do to protect him from E. coli other than wash your hands lol