Habachi G, Aziza B, Ben-Ammar S, Maherzi O, Houas Y, Kerkeni Y, Sahli S, Jouini R. Acute peritonitis secondary to post-traumatic appendicitis: A case report and literature review. World J Clin Cases 2023; 11(27): 6491-6497 [PMID: 37900251 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i27.6491]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Bochra Aziza, Doctor, Surgeon, Department of Pediatric Surgery A, The Béchir-Hamza Children’s Hospital, 167 Bd du 9 Avril 1938, Tunis 1029, Tunisia. bochra.aziza@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ghada Habachi, Bochra Aziza, Sabrine Ben-Ammar, Oussama Maherzi, Yasmine Houas, Yosra Kerkeni, Sondes Sahli, Riadh Jouini, Department of Pediatric Surgery A, The Béchir-Hamza Children’s Hospital, Tunis 1029, Tunisia
Author contributions: Habachi G analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Aziza B contributed to the literature review; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Consent was obtained from the patient for anonymized publication of this case.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bochra Aziza, Doctor, Surgeon, Department of Pediatric Surgery A, The Béchir-Hamza Children’s Hospital, 167 Bd du 9 Avril 1938, Tunis 1029, Tunisia. bochra.aziza@gmail.com
Received: April 13, 2023 Peer-review started: April 13, 2023 First decision: May 31, 2023 Revised: July 30, 2023 Accepted: August 25, 2023 Article in press: August 25, 2023 Published online: September 26, 2023 Processing time: 159 Days and 18.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Blunt abdominal trauma has rarely been reported as a cause of acute appendicitis in the literature. However, the coexistence of the two conditions can cause issues for the patient. We present here a systematic review of cases of traumatic appendicitis as well as our own experience with a 12-year-old male patient.
CASE SUMMARY
A 12-year-old male was admitted 3 d after abdominal trauma, experiencing peritoneal syndrome. A pelvic formation was discovered during abdominal ultrasound, and surgical exploration revealed a perforated appendix. A literature review was conducted applying the keywords “appendicitis,” “abdominal,” and “trauma” to the PubMed, Embase, and Medline databases. Our initial search included 529 papers published between 1991 and 2022, of which 33 papers were finally included. They revealed 51 reported cases. The trauma mechanisms included road traffic accidents, falls, assaults, ball accidents, a horse kick, and a colonoscopy. Eight patients underwent surgical exploration with no prior radiological investigation, and twenty-six patients underwent an initial radiological examination. All reports indicated a perforated appendix.
CONCLUSION
Acute traumatic appendicitis represents a diagnostic quandary that can be misdiagnosed resulting in significant morbidity and potential mortality. A high level of suspicion combined with radiological examination may aid in the diagnosis and treatment of this condition.
Core Tip: Appendicitis and abdominal trauma represent the two most common surgical emergencies in both adults and children. However, their coexistence may pose a diagnostic dilemma depending on whether the finding is incidental. Appendicitis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of right lower quadrant pain after abdominal or perineal trauma.
