Appendicitis Signs & Symptoms The signs and symptoms of appendicitis but before we get into the signs and symptoms i want to briefly introduce what appendicitis is and what causes it so appendicitis is a condition involving inflammation of the appendix so the Appendicitis Signs word appendicitis.

It is means inflammation and the prefix appendus refers to the appendix so it’s information of the appendix and appendicitis is caused by an obstruction of the opening to the appendix so if we look in this image here here is the gastro intestinal system here is the Appendicitis Signs small intestines and they eventually lead into the large intestine.

Now the first part of the large intestine is where the appendix is located the appendix juts off of the first portion of the large intestine and what happens is there’s some kind of obstruction that blocks the opening to the appendix causing inflammation and Appendicitis Signs enlargement of the appendix some things that could be blocking the opening include an appendicolith.

Which is a stone so that stone can block the appendiceal lumen so that stone is often formed from firm feces and some other minerals and some other causes that could be blocking that opening include malignancy and there are some cases of appendicitis where the Appendicitis Signs obstructive cause is not known now what happens is when the depend encyaluminum is blocked bacteria within the appendix get trapped in the appendix and they start to proliferate and multiply and this leads to inflammation and enlargement of the appendix.

what is the epidemiology of appendicitis well the mean age of onset is 20 years of ageand males slightly out number females now before i get into the signs and symptoms of appendicitis i need to briefly introduce abdominal anatomy so here is the patient’s abdomenand Appendicitis Signs normally the patient’s abdomen is split up into four quadrants in order to better describe.

The location where pain might be occurring so the patient’s belly button is the mid point that is the embolicus with a horizontal line and a vertical line so there’s four quadrants in this image we’re looking straight at the patient so this is the patient’s right side and this is Appendicitis Signs the patient’s left side so.

This is the right upper quadrant left upper quadrant right lower quadrant and left lower quadrantand the right lower quadrant is where the appendix is located so the appendix is located in the right lower quadrant more specifically it’s located at a point known as mcburney’s point so.

this is where in the majority of patients the appendix is located now in order to find this point your clinician will feel for what is called the anterior superioriliac spine you don’t have to worry about exactly what that is but that is the upper most protrusion of your hip bonet.

Hey’ll feel for that and then they will draw an imaginary line from that point toy our embolicus or your belly button and it’s one third the distance from your anterior superior iliac spine to your belly button that is the location of the appendix in most patients now.

APPENDIX OPERATION

Let’s talk about the signs and symptoms symptoms are often a cute and present with in 24 hours so symptoms occur quite rapidly with appendicitis first is abdominal pain very important to note is that the abdominal pain in appendicitis is initially vague and generalized periumbilical pain so it occurs right around in this area here and it’s vague patient can’t quite pin point.

where the pain is located they just know it’s in this general area now this is what we call a visceral pain it’s a pain that is vague and is not able to be localized specifically this pain this vague generalized perimenolical pain lasts for four to six hours on average and then the next key feature to note here is that as the condition progress esas.

The appendicit is becomes worse the pain becomes more focal and it localizes to the right lower quadrantso this pain is then what we refer to as somatic pain so if we look in this image here as this appendix becomes more and more inflamed and more and more enlarged it starts to push up against things inside the abdomen so the pain.

Becomes more focal and localized the patient’s able to note exactly where the pain is in this pattern of having a generalized periumbilical pain for several hours and a migration of that pain toward the right lower quadrant and then having a more focal localized pain in the right lower quadrant is the most important discriminating feature of appendicitis so individuals,.

who have that particular pattern of symptoms are highly likely to have appendicitist here are some associated clinical signs and symptoms that can also be noted with appendicitis so clinicians will often test for these signs and symptoms one of them is right lower quadrant pain.

When the left lower quadrant is palpated so if a clinici an pushes on the left lower quadrant and the patient feel spain at mc burney’s point in the right lower quadrant that is known asrav singh’s sign and that is suggestive of peritoneal irritation and then the other sign that clinicians may use is when there’s pain elicited in the right lower quadrant at mcburney’s point.

when the patient coughs that is known as dunphy sign so some of these may beassessed by your clinician but again what’s important to note the most important thing to note with regards to appendicitis is this pattern of pain sensation and migrationgeneralized periumbilical pain that migrates and becomes more focal and localized in the right lower.

Quadrantat mcburden’s point in most patients so very key some other signs and symptoms of appendicitis include anorexia so this is a loss or reduced appetite this occurs early around the time of periumbilical pain and it may be secondary to pain so what we note is that an or exia and that generalized period embolical pain are some of the first signs and symptoms.

That occur with appendicitis and it affects the majority of patients approximately 75 of patients with appendicitis will report an orexia or loss of appetite another symptom of appendicitis is nausea and vomiting.

this is due to right lower quadrant pain and it occurs after the on set of pain if nausea and vomiting occurs before the on set of pain before the on set of that generalized periumbilical pain this suggests another condition so it’s more likely that the nausea and vomiting occurs after the on set of pain patients with appendicitis can also have fever and chills.

This is due to inflammation of the appendix and more specifically bacterial proliferation with in the appendix and it may also be due to perforation of the appendix so if the appendicitis goes on for too long and it becomes more and more enlarged and inflamed it is at risk for being perforated for essentially rupturing and it usually occurs after 48 hours of on set of appendicitis and you can imagine that.

If you havea rupture of the appendix you’re going to have a spilling of bacteria and some other fecal contents that is going to lead to an infection diarrhea is also another possible symptom of appendicitis it’s waterystoolbut it only occurs in 10 to 20 percentof patients so less likely that patients with appendicitis will have diarrhea some other signs and symptoms of appendicitis include malaise malaise is a generalized feeling of being un well that can be common in appendicitis and then an other sign or symptom.

Appendicitis Signs & Symptoms

that can occur in appendicitis is urinary frequency and urgency so urinary urgency and frequency is feeling like you need to urinate more often so that’s an increased frequency of urination and feeling like you have to urinate more quickly so you have aurge to urinate you might be wondering why this happens so here is a diagram of the gastro intestinal system so again.

We’re looking straight at the patient and here’s the right side of the patient here’s the left sideof the patient here’s the appendix right here in the right lower quadrant that juts off of thelarge intestine and here’s the bladder the bladder is in front ofthe gastro intestinal system what can happen though is if the appendix becomes enlarged and in flamed it can start to push on the bladder so.

The enlarged appendix can start to push on the bladder and cause irritation of the bladder it can make the patient feel like they have to urinate so that irritation that pushing on the bladder can make them feel like they have to urinate more frequently and feel like they have to urinate more urgently so that is the reason.

Why you can see urinary frequency andurgency in appendicitis this is similar to the mechanism we describe indiverticulitis and these signs and symptoms of urinary urgency and frequency are similar to what we might see in a urinary tract infection but it’s not going to be mistaken for urinary tract infection because you’re going to see all those other symptoms we talked about before especially that pattern of pain location sensation and migration of the pain so that’s with regards to appendicitisif you want more information.