Neonatal Appendicitis (Part 1): A Review of 52 cases with Abdominal Manifestation

Abstract

Please see Fulltext

An Experience with 31 Cases of Neonatal Appendicitis: A Retrospective Study

“…Karaman et al, (13] found that the occurrence of NA in males was three times higher than in females. Raveenthiran V, [1] found a slight male preponderance as also observed in our series. Premature neonates believed to be at higher risk for development of NA as reported by Reyes et al [14] and Secco et al [15].…”

“…Acute appendicitis is one of the common diseases among children, it is less often considered in the diagnosis of neonatal acute abdomen. Raveenthiran [1,12] analysed the reports published in 1990 and 2014 and found that maximum number of cases have been reported from India. We have dealt 31 cases of NA from October 2001 to July 2018 in our hospital.…”

“…Acute appendicitis is extremely rare in neonatal age group. [1][2][3] It accounts for an estimated 0.04-0.2% of childhood appendicitis. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The Clinical features of NA are very atypical, which leads to misdiagnosis and delayed treatment.…”

Neonatal Appendicitis Presenting as Bilious Emesis and Septic Shock

“…Imaging modalities in neonates provide little assistance in identifying appendicitis, but are helpful in detecting complications, such as pneumoperitoneum on x-ray, free abdominal fluid on ultrasonography, or upper gastrointestinal x-rays with contrast showing bowel obstruction. 11 Signs suggestive of bowel obstruction were identified in our case, which prompted further surgical intervention.…”

“…6 The neonatal immune system also is inexperienced and responds poorly to overwhelming infections. 11 The omentum is underdeveloped and is unable to absorb purulent material, resulting in widespread dissemination after perforation of the infection to the small neonatal abdominal cavity. 9 Also contributing is the difficulty in making an early diagnosis in this patient population.…”