Stump Appendicitis: Report of Four Cases

Hideyuki Ajisaka¹⁾²⁾, Etsuro Bando²⁾, Toshiaki Yasui²⁾, Hideto Fujita²⁾, Masahide Kaji²⁾, Hironobu Kimura²⁾, Kiichi Maeda²⁾, Kazuhisa Yabushita²⁾ and Kohji Konishi²⁾

Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Toyama Prefectural Central Hospital¹⁾, Department of Surgery, Toyama Prefectural Central Hospital²⁾

Of 390 patients undergoing surgery for appendicitis from April 1995 to September 2000, 4 had had previous appendectomy. All reported right lower abdominal pain. At consultation, antibiotics were started without consideration of stump appendicitis due to previous appendectomy. Three days to 1 month after symptoms occured, surgery was done due to symptom persistence. Only 1 patient was diagnosed preoperatively with stump appendicitis and the other 3 were diagnosed as ileocecal abscess based on computed tomography. All underwent ileocecal resection and were diagnosed pathologically with stump appendicitis. In conclusion, any patient who has undergone appendectomy and presents symptoms similar to appendicitis should be evaluated for stump appendicitis.

Key words
appendectomy, stump appendicitis, recurrent appendicitis

Reprint requests
Hideyuki Ajisaka Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Toyama Prefectural Central Hospital 2-2-78 Nishi-Nagae, Toyama, 930-8550 JAPAN

Accepted
October 31, 2001

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