Traumatic appendicitis in minor blunt abdominal injury.
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.
Second Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Drama, Drama, Greece. kostaspaschos@yahoo.gr
Konstantinos A
KA
Paschos
Konstantinos
K
Boulas
Apostolos
A
Liapis
Eleftheria
E
Georgiou
Xenos
X
Vrakas
D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D000293:Adolescent; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007813:Laparotomy; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications*