Symptoms of Appendicitis in Women
1. Pain is localized around the navel and upper abdomen, worsening with movement, coughing, or sneezing. The pain may lessen as it moves to the right lower abdomen and the inflammation downward toward the appendix.
2. Vomiting
3. Low-grade fever
4. Constipation
5. Change in bowel habits
6. Low back pain
7 . Nausea and vomiting: These symptoms typically occur later in the course of appendicitis and are more common among children than adults
8. Abdominal swelling (distention)
9 . Loss of appetite
10. Fever
11. General discomfort
12. Weakness
13. Decreased frequency or urinary
Symptoms of appendicitis in men:
● The most common symptom of appendicitis is abdominal pain. It usually begins in the center of your abdomen, around or just below your navel. The pain then moves to your right lower abdomen and sometimes into your back.
● Other symptoms include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fever, and chills, bloating, and mild diarrhea in some cases.
● Some men also experience constipation in the days before their appendix ruptures.
● Men at risk for an obstructed (blocked) appendix should watch out for worsening pain with movement or coughing/sneezing; nausea; vomiting; fever; decreased appetite; exhaustion; dizziness.
Symptoms Appendicitis:-
Symptoms may be similar to other medical problems. Make sure your child sees their healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
The symptoms of appendicitis often begin pretty gradually, with an episode of crampy abdominal pain that starts around the navel and becomes more severe as time goes on. Pain from appendicitis typically worsens when a person moves their body, coughs, or sneezes. Nausea and vomiting may occur in early cases.
What is Appendicitis? – Symptoms & treatment:
Appendicitis is one of the most common causes of emergency abdominal surgery. The appendix is a small pouch attached to the large intestine, which has no known function in today’s world. When it becomes blocked, it can become inflamed, and this is called appendicitis.
Symptoms of Appendicitis:
The most common symptom is a pain in the center of your belly, which becomes more severe as it moves to your right lower abdomen and sometimes into your back. You may also have nausea, vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, general discomfort, or weakness.
If you are at risk for an obstructed (blocked) appendix—which means the blockage is higher up—watch out for worsening pain with movement or coughing/sneezing; nausea; vomiting; fever; decreased appetite; exhaustion; dizziness; confusion; chills; abdominal bloating accompanied by constipation (or diarrhea); and urinary complaints. If you’re pregnant, be aware that some signs of appendicitis are the same as pregnancy discomforts. If you’re not sure, see your doctor immediately.
If a child has appendicitis, they may have abdominal pain and refuse to eat due to the pain from their stomach. They may also vomit or complain of belly pain. In addition, there may be a fever present with other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, loss of appetite, or abdominal swelling (distention) where there is no previous fullness in the abdomen. A child may have other symptoms just as an adult would have if they have appendicitis.
If your child has these symptoms, call the doctor immediately. Anytime someone is vomiting and has a fever, it’s essential to contact a healthcare provider right away so the problem can be evaluated promptly to find out what’s wrong. It could be something simple, but it could also be something serious.
Appendicitis diagnosis:
appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix or vermiform appendix. The appendix is a small dead-end tube attached to the large bowel. It has no known purpose but can become infected and inflamed, which will cause pain in your lower belly (abdomen) on the right side that worsens over time.
Prevention of appendicitis:
There are some precautions to prevent this disease like:
1- Eat high fiber foods, which help food to move through our system faster.
2- Drink plenty of water every day.
3- Don’t drink or smoke too much alcohol.
4- Maintain your weight at an average level because being overweight may pressure your stomach and trigger abdominal pain.
5- Take small frequent meals instead of more significant portions so that the stomach won’t be overloaded and inflamed.
6- Exercise regularly to avoid constipation.
7- Avoid sitting for long hours or standing up after eating to let food digest easily not stay in your stomach for too much time.
8- Sleep on the left side position to prevent pressure on your appendix.
9- Don’t lift heavy objects without care. Often lifting things may put pressure on your stomach and trigger abdominal pain (appendicitis).
10- If you feel abdominal pain get medical help immediately…The following are symptoms of appendicitis:- 1- The most common symptom is an ache around the belly button which usually begins quite gradually and increases in intensity over a few hours. 2- The pain is typically severe and constant, although it may be boosted by moving around or coughing.
3- You may also feel sick with some vomiting.
4- The skin around the belly button feels tender to touch
5- If your appendix becomes strangulated (see below), you’ll have even more extreme pain, which reaches beyond the right side of the abdomen into your lower back.
6- You could have diarrhea if your appendix bursts due to appendicitis, but this is less common than constipation.
7- Appendicitis can affect children too. Sometimes they don’t have typical symptoms—for example, their tummy aches might be more generalized, with no clear point of origin.
8- Appendicitis can also be completely painless for some people, so bear in mind that you might not have all the classic symptoms.
Diagnosis of appendicitis:
1- Your doctor will start by asking about your symptoms and medical history and an examination looking at:
2- If you do have typical signs and symptoms of appendicitis, there are several further investigations that may be done to confirm the diagnosis:
3- Blood tests – your doctor may suspect that you’ve got appendicitis because you’ve got typical symptoms, and they can feel an enlarged appendix on examination. A blood test can give a very reliable confirmation of the diagnosis.
4- Ultrasound scan – this is a painless test that produces a picture of your appendix on a screen. It’s perfect for ruling out appendicitis, as well as detecting an inflamed appendix.
5- CT scan – you may have a CT scan if, for example, it’s unclear from the ultrasound what state the appendix is in (although this isn’t common). A CT (or CAT) scan involves lying on a table and having an injection of contrast dye into your vein before scans are taken to examine many body parts such as your abdomen and pelvis.
6- Appendicectomy can also be done. This involves surgery to remove the appendix and usually happens once the diagnosis is confirmed.
Treatment for appendicitis:
1- Treatment usually boils down to either having an operation to remove your appendix (appendicectomy) or letting it burst naturally and treating the infection with antibiotics. The decision about what’s best for you will depend on a range of factors, including how long it’s been since you first noticed the symptoms, what other medical conditions you have, and your overall level of health.
2- Appendicitis often responds well to taking antibiotics alone if the inflammation hasn’t spread to nearby tissues. This might be an option for some people at risk of complications from surgery, such as older people who may experience heart problems during the procedure. However, if the inflammation has spread or your appendix has burst, you’ll need to have an appendicectomy.
3- If appendicitis is diagnosed early enough (before it bursts), an appendicectomy can be done quickly and with minimal risk of complications. The procedure usually involves making a 10cm cut in the lower right side of the abdomen, removing the appendix through this opening, then stitching up the skin afterward. The operation usually takes about 30 minutes to perform, but you’ll need to stay in the hospital overnight for observation.
4- Recovery time after surgery will depend on what kind of operation it was—for example, whether or not you had additional health conditions which needed addressing during the procedure—as well as your overall health.
If your appendix is inflamed, you will need antibiotics:
1- If it’s too late for an appendectomy (your appendix has burst), treatment with antibiotics may be necessary in some cases. Antibiotics usually start working within 48 hours of starting the medication, although they may not make you feel better immediately. You’ll need to take antibiotics for six weeks even after you start feeling better to make sure the infection doesn’t come back.
2- However, if there are no signs of peritonitis and appendicitis has been diagnosed early enough so that your appendix hasn’t burst yet, you might be able to avoid surgery altogether by taking antibiotics alone. This isn’t done very often and only if you’re at risk of complications from surgery (for example, you’re older and may not recover well from general anesthesia).
What if the antibiotics don’t work?
1- If your doctor has prescribed antibiotics and they haven’t started working in a couple of days, or the pain and discomfort are getting worse instead of better, this means that there’s probably something else wrong. This could be an infection with different bacteria than those targeted by the antibiotic you’ve been given, such as an additional strain of E coli or another type of bacterium.
It could also mean more than one problem with your appendix or surrounding tissues, which requires treatment. For instance, if appendicitis has spread to your peritoneum (the membrane that lines your abdominal cavity), you’ll need to have an appendicectomy.
2- If things don’t improve, you should see your doctor again as soon as possible for further treatment or to discuss options such as having surgery or trying a different antibiotic. You may also be referred to a specialist (a surgeon, for example).
3- The decision about whether to operate on someone with peritonitis and an inflamed appendix is complicated and depends on many factors: the overall state of the patient’s health; how fast the inflammation has spread; and whether or not there are signs that it has already burst by the time they get diagnosed. Doctors often rely on imaging such as computed tomography (CT) scans and ultrasounds to make this decision.
4- If an inflamed appendix has already burst (peritonitis), you’ll need to have surgery immediately, even if there are no signs of infection spreading in the peritoneal cavity. This is because there’s a risk that the disease could spread quickly to other parts of your body.
The main concern with this type of peritonitis is sepsis (blood poisoning). You might also be prescribed antibiotics before the procedure, but they won’t make any difference once your appendix has burst and it’s too late for them to work.