APPENDICITIS: everything you should know.
Hello my friends, today we will talk about appendicitis, which is a very frequent pathology in the emergency room.
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix.
What is the appendix? The appendix is a finger-shaped structure that starts from the caecum, the caecum is the first portion of the large intestine.
The appendix has a narrow lumen and thick walls, in its walls it has prominent follicles, these follicles become inflamed in response to an infection.
CAUSES OF APPENDICITIS
Appendicitis occurs as a result of obstruction of the lumen of the appendix, this happens for several reasons:
- Infection: As mentioned before, the walls of the appendix have follicles, which become inflamed in response to an infection, obstructing the lumen of the appendix.
- Constipation: Stool can accumulate in the appendix obstructing its lumen.
- Remains of food: The most frequent are usually seeds that are trapped in the lumen the appendix
- Microorganism or parasites: Either directly obstruct the lumen of the appendix or causing an infection, triggering an inflammation of the appendix
Contrary to what many think the obstruction of the lumen of the appendix by seeds only represent 3% of cases of appendicitis, the most frequent cause are infections.
SYMPTOMS OF APPENDICITIS:
The main symptom of appendicitis is abdominal pain, but many pathologies are represented by this symptom, how to distinguish pain from appendicitis ?. For this we will divide the abdomen into 9 sections, drawing 4 lines. 2 vertical lines that pass through the middle of the clavicle.
2 horizontal lines, an upper one that joins the lower edges of the ribs and a lower one that joins the upper edges of the hip bone.
The pain of appendicitis is in the right iliac region, but usually begins in the umbilicus as referred pain and finally migrates to the right iliac region.
Other symptoms are:
- Mare.
- Vomitos.
- Fever.
- Domantic extension.
WHAT IS THE TREATMENT OF APENDICITIS?
The treatment is surgical and immediately, it consists of the extirpation of the appendix. This extirpation is known as appendectomy.
Sometimes doctors can be wrong and at the time of reaching the appendix they note that it is not affected and that the pain is due to another pathology, in this case the appendix is removed in the same way, to prevent a future appendicitis and because the appendix is not an organ that fulfills some function, therefore its extirpation does not bring consequences if not benefits.
Any questions can leave it in the comments :) Thanks for reading.
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