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Traumatic appendicitis in minor blunt abdominal injury
Author(s) -
Paschos Konstantinos A,
Boulas Konstantinos,
Liapis Apostolos,
Georgiou Eleftheria,
Vrakas Xenos
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/j.1742-6723.2012.01557.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ecchymosis , appendicitis , blunt , appendix , abdominal trauma , laparotomy , iliac fossa , surgery , general surgery , blunt trauma , paleontology , biology
Trauma has been reported as a cause of appendicitis on several cases in the literature. The present study reports the relationship between blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) of injury severity score less than 4 and appendicitis. A 17‐year‐old girl developed appendicitis after a minor BAT. An ecchymosis at the right lower quadrant misled the diagnosis, which was made 1 day later. Laparotomy revealed an inflamed appendix, a few enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes, contusion, as well as punctuated bleeding sites of the caecum. Moreover, based on a brief literature review, the different pathophysiological mechanisms and the difficulties of diagnosis of this entity are discussed. It is suggested that appendicitis should be considered as a possibility in the setting of right lower quadrant pain following minor BAT, when there is clinical suspicion of an inflammatory process within the right iliac fossa.