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Appendicitis

One serious illness that some children go through is appendicitis. This is when the appendix becomes inflamed. It can cause your child pain and illness, and it is important to seek medical attention so that the swollen appendix does not rupture before surgery can be done. Below are symptoms of appendicitis, as well as information about treatment and risk factors:

• Symptoms—
Many of the symptoms of appendicitis resemble those of other childhood illnesses, so it can be hard to know if this is what they have or not. If your child has the following symptoms, though, you should immediately call their doctor. It is better for your child to be checked than to assume it isn’t appendicitis and be wrong:

Abdomen pain—particularly beginning at the belly button and rotating to the right
Swollen abdomen—this isn’t always present, but is important if noticed in infants, since they can’t tell anyone that their stomach hurts

Nausea and vomiting

Diarrhea

Frequent urination or strong urge to urinate

• Risk factors—
While there isn’t anything in particular that causes a child to get appendicitis, there are a few known factors that can increase a child’s risk of developing it:

Heredity

Cystic fibrosis—children with this illness are more susceptible to appendicitis

• Diagnosis—
Determining whether a child has appendicitis can prove to be a difficult task for doctors. There is not a specific test to check for this illness, so doctors have to rely on ruling out other illnesses and base their diagnosis on these results as well as a physical exam, family history and the child’s health history. The following tests may be done to determine if your child has appendicitis:

Blood tests

Urine tests

CT scan

• Treatment—
If your child is diagnosed with appendicitis, an appendectomy (surgery to remove the appendix) will be required. Most often, it is classified as emergency surgery and will be done immediately. The swollen appendix can rupture within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms, and it is important for surgery to be done before this happens. If the appendix ruptures before surgery, a more difficult surgery, antibiotics, as well as a longer hospital stay will be required.

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