Your healthcare provider will ask about your past health and do a physical exam. He or she may also have you take the following tests:. If your appendix has not burst then your recovery from an appendectomy will only take a few days.
If your appendix has burst, your recovery time will be longer and you will need antibiotic medicine. You can live a normal life without your appendix. Changes in diet or exercise are usually not needed. Health Home Conditions and Diseases. What causes appendicitis?
Who is at risk for appendicitis? Appendicitis affects 1 in 1, people living in the U. Most cases of appendicitis happen to people between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Having a family history of appendicitis may raise your risk, especially if you are a man. For a child, having cystic fibrosis also seems to raise the risk of getting appendicitis. What are the symptoms of appendicitis? The following are common symptoms of appendicitis. Your own symptoms may vary.
Pain in the abdomen is the most common symptom. This pain: May start in the area around your belly button and move to the lower right-hand side of your belly. It may also start in the lower right-hand side of your belly. Often gets worse as time goes on.
May feel worse when you are moving, taking deep breaths, being touched, and coughing or sneezing. May be felt all over your belly if your appendix bursts. This is usually due to a blockage inside your appendix that causes it to swell up and get infected, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases , here are the signs and symptoms of appendicitis to look out for:. Ruptures or perforated appendixes happen in a minority of appendicitis cases, Diya Alaedeen, M.
At that point, the appendix walls get holes in them that release things like stool and mucus. Sarah Chima, M. Those include having diabetes, taking chronic pain medications or steroids, and waiting more than three days after your symptoms started to get help.
With that in mind, the biggest thing you can do to prevent your appendix from bursting is getting professional help ASAP if you suspect you might have appendicitis. On top of the symptoms above, the main red flag of a burst appendix is worsening pain that spreads to new areas. A pocket of pus that forms in the abdomen.
If your appendix bursts, you may develop a pocket of infection abscess. In most cases, a surgeon drains the abscess by placing a tube through your abdominal wall into the abscess.
The tube is left in place for about two weeks, and you're given antibiotics to clear the infection. Once the infection is clear, you'll have surgery to remove the appendix. In some cases, the abscess is drained, and the appendix is removed immediately.
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Appendicitis is a painful swelling of the appendix. The appendix is a small, thin pouch about 5 to 10cm 2 to 4 inches long. It's connected to the large intestine, where poo forms. Nobody knows exactly what the appendix does, but removing it is not harmful. Appendicitis typically starts with a pain in the middle of your tummy abdomen that may come and go. Within hours, the pain travels to the lower right-hand side, where the appendix usually lies, and becomes constant and severe.
You may lose your appetite, feel sick and have constipation or diarrhoea. If you have abdominal pain that's gradually getting worse, contact a GP or your local out-of-hours service immediately.
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