Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix that is finger-like glandular
piece of tissue attached to your large intestine at the lower right side of the
abdomen. With appendicitis, the appendix becomes inflamed and infected by
bacteria because the inside of the appendix gets blocked.
Appendicitis is normally caused by small pieces of hardened stool that get stuck
in the appendix. Appendicitis may also follow an infection, such as a
gastrointestinal viral infection, or it may result from other types of
inflammation.
If the infected appendix is not removed, it can ultimately burst or break from
the buildup of pressure and infection may spread to other areas of abdomen. Due
to this reason appendicitis is one of the most common reasons for emergency
abdominal surgery in children.
Appendicitis is usually diagnosed by doctors based on the history, description
of the symptoms, the physical exam, and laboratory tests. Children are more
likely to be affected with appendicitis as compared to adults.
Appendicitis can be categorized as typical and atypical. In typical appendicitis
the pain starts centrally before localizing to the lower right side of the
abdomen. The symptoms under this are usually loss of appetite and fever where as
nausea, or vomiting may or may not occur.
In a atypical appendicitis the pain starts with right lower abdomen pain. The
symptoms under atypical appendicitis are: malaise, lethargy and/or fever. In
both the cases surgery removes an appendix and this procedure is known as
appendicectomy. After surgery antibiotics are given by the doctors to kill the
remaining bacteria as this will prevent the occurrence of infection in the
abdomen.
Recovery of patients depends on age, condition, complication but most of the
patients recover easily with treatment and in case if treatment is delayed the
complication can occur. This means if your appendix ruptures before surgery, you
will probably recover more slowly.