Appendicitis

[Summerwood1]

Not sure about this one,my Sister never tells the truth. Anyway my niece was admitted to hospital with stomach pains,they did scans and couldn't find anything wrong so not sure. Sister says niece needs to go back in 4-5 weeks to have her appendic out. What I'm confused about is,if it needs to come out,why wait 5 weeks. Is this usual?

If she had acute appendicitis, it would need to be removed immediately as your niece could quickly become very unwell. I'm not sure if there is a less severe form of it. I know years ago the term ' grumbling appendix' used to be used but sorry I'm not really sure what this means !

I haven't heard of anyone having their appendix removed in anything other than a emergency situation for years.

It doesn't sound right at all does it? A dodgy appendix would show on a scan wouldn't it? Was she sent home with antibiotics at all?

My dd had appendices when she was 3. She was given antibiotics by drip for a week, then once the inflammation was gone, we went back a few weeks later to have it removed.

We do that with gall bladders: wait until the inflammation settles after an acute attack before removing it, to minimise the amount it will 'stick' to the surrounding organs/structures. Never heard of it being done with an appendix though, are you in the UK OP?

And we're in the UK.

I had mine out after about a 3 months wait as it was just 'grumbling'. This was about 8 years ago.

No, she's not got any antibiotics for it. Just seems odd to me!

My nephew had his appendix out after months having appendicitis that morphed into something much worse. They chose to medically manage the infection with antibiotics and then removed the appendix after he had recovered from the infection and was much stronger. The recovery was very quick after the keyhole surgery and it was managed well.
This was in the UK he was 8.

It's not unheard of - a colleague at work recently had appenicitis and when she was admitted they said that she had a secondary infection that had to be treated with antibiotics before they could do surgery - it was near her appendix on her bowel. She actually had to wait just over a month before the operation. I'd never heard of having to wait until then - thought you always had them out ASAP.

Yes it can be done like that. If the appendix is inflamed but not causing acute illness, then surgery can be planned. In some older patients there is a preference for treating acute appendicitis with antibiotics to avoid surgery as the risk is so high. Obviously, if the infection is so bad that the appendix ruptures into the bowel causing peritonitis,then surgery is completely unavoidable.

If it's suspected appendicitis they usually remove it straight away as a precaution in case it bursts.

If I remember rightly the doctors can't diagnose appendicitis until they have actually been in and removed the appendix. I had mine removed 5 years ago.

Why would your sister lie? Seems a strange thing to make up. Hope your niece is ok.

I had a grumbling appendix as a child which involved a hospital stay, was discharged and told it would be removed a later date . . . . never heard from the hospital again.