Appendicitis is a well-known illness that affects a lot of the world’s population. The irrelevant bacteria-harboring sac known as the appendix is actually the leading cause of many deaths. Appendicitis, in short, is the inflammation of the appendix. Within the span of 48-72 hours after symptoms appear, the inflamed appendix will rupture, causing the spread of life-threatening infection to the entirety of the abdominal cavity.
There have been many cases in which a doctor misdiagnoses other pathologies as appendicitis. While it may be somewhat complex, knowing about the symptoms of appendicitis and that of other pathologies that may seem to look like appendicitis but actually are not may be useful.
Appendicitis usually starts with pain in the region around or behind the belly button, and may be supplemented with nausea and anorexia. Within the next 24 hours, the pain will start to intensify and localize itself to the right lower quadrant of the abdomen. It is unlikely that the patient will experience a fever. However, if a fever does emerge and turns out to be high, and chills (pain that intensifies right after subsiding) are experienced, there is a high chance that the person may have a perforated appendix. Due to pain, there is also a possibility for the person to be tachycardic, which is having a heart rate that is over the normal resting rate, and experience hypovolemia, a literal shock of the body that limits the oxygen and blood flow to the organs.
It is vital that one does not simply assume that a person is suffering from acute appendicitis only though the observation of pain in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen. Here are several other illnesses that the individual may suffer with the symptom of pain in the right lower quadrant:
Gastroenteritis: the inflammation of the intestine’s lining due to a virus, bacteria, or parasites.
Meckel’s diverticulitis: infection/inflammation of Meckel’s diverticulum (a bulge in the lower part of the intestine left over by the umbilical cord).
Urinary tract infection: infection of the urinary tract
Crohn’s disease: an inflammatory bowel’s disease which causes inflammation of the digestive tract leading to abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weight loss, anemia, and fatigue.
Mesenteric adenitis: inflammation and swelling in the lymph nodes inside the abdomen.
Intussusception: part of the intestine folds into the section immediately ahead of it.
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