If you start to notice persistent abdominal pain, it could be more than just a stomach ache. Pain in the lower right side of your abdomen can be a sign of appendicitis, and it’s important that you go to the doctor sooner rather than later. Nicholas Harms, MD, Avera general surgeon from Mitchell explains what treatment and recovery entail.
What causes appendicitis?
The appendix is a small appendage that hangs off the very beginning of the colon. It has a small opening and the theory of what causes appendicitis is that something happens to block that small opening. Regardless of what the cause might be, something blocks that opening and then the appendix begins to accumulate fluid, pressure builds up, and it becomes painful and infected.
What are symptoms of appendicitis?
Typically symptoms start out relatively vague. You might have some generalized abdominal discomfort, sometimes nausea, as time goes on, the symptoms usually become more specific where the pain becomes more focal, more right over the location of the appendix. Sometimes people develop fever, and other GI symptoms, but generally it’s the pain that ends up bringing patients in for care.
How do you treat appendicitis?
The standard of care for treating appendicitis is to do surgery to perform an appendectomy. That can almost always be performed laparoscopically. If we find that the appendix is not ruptured, which is usually the case, oftentimes patients have surgery and go home the same day or next day. It’s possible if we find the appendix to be perforated or have an abscess around it, that patients need to stay longer and receive IV antibiotics or have other care provided.
What is recovery like after an appendectomy?
Oftentimes patients go home the same day or the next day. We give them some lifting restrictions after surgery for a couple of weeks based on letting their incisions heal, but by and large they recover quite quickly.
