Progress of acute appendicitis: A study in children

Abstract

Abstract The results of six simple investigations are compared with the duration of the disease in 100 children with acute appendicitis. The results indicate that during the first day on which the appendix becomes inflamed the local defence mechanisms of the appendix are impaired sufficiently to allow invastion by the bacterial organisms in its lumen. This initially inflamed and subsequently infected appendix may develop in the manner indicated. Local and jor generalized complications may follow, i. e. acute appendicities in its successive stages of development, which may be regarded as (a) inflamed, (b) infected and (c) complicated, and thesed changes take place at intervals of 1 day. Bacteria and faecoliths are present in the lumen of the appendix, whether inflamed or not, and it is suggested that they complicate the disese rather than being responsible for causing it.