# Should a surgeon be able to distinguish a spleen from a liver? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 15, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-surgeon-be-able-to-distinguish-a-spleen-from-a-liver/1007274 "2024-09-15T00:46:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-surgeon-be-able-to-distinguish-a-spleen-from-a-liver/1007274/3 "2024-09-15T01:00:10Z")
There’s already a thread relating to this 😉 . With that said, IANA any sort of medical professional, and I’m nearly certain _I_ could tell the organs in question apart. IMO there is something very deeply wrong when a room full of medical professionals (who presumably had to pass anatomy classes to even BE there) collectively manage to get it wrong. The “surgeon” certainly was not the only person in the room with working eyes, and I’d be horrified if said “surgeon” was in possession of the highest-functioning brain present. > [@Man dies from "splenectomy" where they removed his LIVER instead!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-dies-from-splenectomy-where-they-removed-his-liver-instead/1006842): > > This is insane! They were away from home, and he had abdominal pain and a doctor recommended that he have a semi-urgent splenectomy - and they removed his LIVER instead! How could that even happen, unless the man had a massively enlarged spleen which is a very real possibility? I’m not a physician, but those organs are not the same, to put it lightly (although the liver does take over the duties of the spleen if the latter is removed). Apparently, he’d done something like this before. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-surgeon-be-able-to-distinguish-a-spleen-from-a-liver/1007274)._