Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, a finger-shaped pouch that projects from your colon on the lower right side of your abdomen.
Appendicitis causes pain in your lower right abdomen. However, in most people, pain begins around the navel and then moves. As inflammation worsens, appendicitis pain typically increases and eventually becomes severe.
Although anyone can develop appendicitis, most often it occurs in people between the ages of 10 and 30. Standard treatment is surgical removal of the appendix. It is the most common reason behind emergency abdominal surgery in the world. If surgery isn’t performed quickly enough, it can lead to a ruptured appendix, which can result in a life-threatening infection called peritonitis.
It is a good idea to get to the emergency room right away if you think you have appendicitis. But how do you know if your stomach pain is appendicitis or if it’s actually progressed into a ruptured appendix?
Appendix at a glance
The appendix is a finger-shaped pouch that sits in the lower right section of your abdomen. When you were a child, it’s an important part of your immune system, which helps your body fight disease; but as you get older, it stops doing this and is no longer needed. That is why if yours is acting up, doctors will make quick work of removing it.
What is appendicitis?
Appendicitis occurs when the appendix becomes inflamed. This is usually due to a blockage inside your appendix that causes it to swell up and get infected, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. As the swelling gets worse, blood flow to the appendix stops, eventually causing it to burst. At that point, the appendix walls get holes in them that release things like stool and mucus.
Symptoms include pain that worsens quickly and starts near your belly button and then migrates to your lower right side.
Pain that gets worse when you move, breathe, cough, or sneeze. Pain that’s severe and unlike anything you have ever experienced. Pain that’s so bad it wakes you up in the middle of the night.
Other symptoms of appendicitis include nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, not being able to pass gas, swollen belly, fever and feeling like a bowel movement would make you feel better
How to know if your appendix burst
While appendicitis is often treatable, the severity of the condition and a person’s outcome changes once their appendix ruptures.
Ruptures or perforated appendixes happen in a minority of appendicitis cases and it’s more common in elderly patients. However, it does happen in younger people as well. There are a few risk factors that increase the odds your appendix will burst. Those include having diabetes, taking chronic pain medications or steroids, and waiting more than three days after your symptoms started to get help.
Luckily, a person’s appendix doesn’t usually burst without warning. People will often develop the symptoms mentioned above, like abdominal pain mostly around the belly button toward the lower right side that doesn’t go away or gets worse, a fever, and nausea or vomiting.But symptoms definitely get worse if the appendix actually bursts. “The telltale sign is usually severe pain that starts spreading all over the abdomen states Dr. Gabriel Omonaiye.
Dr. Omonaiye says a person with a burst appendix will be in excruciating pain and any movement can bother them.
“Coughing or sneezing will hurt and bouncing during walking will cause pain your abdomen. These are indicators that you have something significant going on.”
He adds that it doesn’t always mean that your appendix has already burst, but it’s a good sign that it may be close to doing so.
Complications
Appendicitis can cause serious complications, such as a ruptured appendix. A rupture spreads infection throughout your abdomen (peritonitis). Possibly life-threatening, this condition requires immediate surgery to remove the appendix and clean your abdominal cavity.
If your appendix bursts, you may develop a pocket of infection (abscess). In most cases, a surgeon drains the abscess by placing a tube through your abdominal wall into the abscess. The tube is left in place for about two weeks, and you’re given antibiotics to clear the infection.
Once the infection is clear, you will have surgery to remove the appendix. In some cases, the abscess is drained, and the appendix is removed immediately.
What to do if your appendix burst
If you think your appendix burst, head to the hospital immediately. Once you get there, you will likely get a CT scan to see what’s going on. If your appendix has burst, doctors will perform surgery to remove it, Dr Omonaiye explains.
However, if it burst awhile before you sought help, there’s a chance that it could have formed an abscess in your abdomen, making it difficult or dangerous for doctors to perform surgery. In that case, they may treat your infection with antibiotics and remove your appendix at a later time.
Above all, experts stress that it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your appendix. “When we see people who have ruptured, it’s generally because they waited and thought they would be fine, but appendicitis doesn’t get better,” says Dr. Omonaiye.