Recurrent Abdominal Pain and Chronic Appendicitis

The question of whether chronic appendicitis can give rise to chronic abdominal pain has always been a matter of controversy. The main purpose of this study was to find a means of diagnosing chronic inflammation of appendix through clinical and histopathological procedures. A group of 18 patients complaining of frequent pain attacks in their RLQs were involved in our study. The patients'' history, clinical and lab findings were closely evaluated. All the patients underwent appendectomy and all their appendices were histopathologically examined. Chronic appendicitis was ruled in with a positive pathology report confirming chronic inflammation. All the patients referred for their follow-up visits in a period of one year. Histopathology reports confirmed chronic appendicitis in 16 of the cases (88.8%). From them 93.7% expressed complete pain relief in the follow-up visits. 62.5% of our patients were women and the rest were men. The patients were categorized into three age groups as those less than 15 years (18.75%), between 15 and 25 years (31.25%) and older than 25 (50%). It seems as if chronic appendicitis could be blamed for recurrent abdominal pain attacks. The dis- ease is easily cured via appendectomy.