Laparoscopic treatment of lower abdominal pain related to chronic appendicitis.

The appendicitis is one of the most common entities that could be met at surgical department. Chronic pelvic pain of right iliac fossa is common and it causes disability and distress and results in significant costs to health services. Often, investigation by laparoscopy reveals no obvious cause for pain. There are several possible explanations for chronic pelvic pain including undetected irritable bowel syndrome, the vascular hypothesis where pain is thought to arise from dilated pelvic veins in which blood flow is markedly reduced and altered spinal cord and brain processing of stimuli in women with chronic pelvic pain. As the pathophysiology of chronic pelvic pain is not well understood, its treatment is often unsatisfactory and limited to symptom relief. We aimed to identify and review treatments for chronic pelvic pain related to appendicitis. Frequently ultrasound and CT scan cannot confirm the diagnosis of chronic appendicitis due to non significant swelling of vermiform appendix. The study excludes patients with a diagnosis of pelvic congestion syndrome, those with pain known to be caused by gynecological disorders or irritable bowel syndrome. Detailed history, clinical examination, and serological and radiological investigations failed to reveal the cause of the pain in all cases. We presumed that pain is caused by chronic appendicitis with appendicolithiasis and that removal of appendix will result in symptom relief. We performed study with 75 patients treated by laparoscopic appendectomy. Duration of symptoms ranged from 3 to 48 months, with a mean of 13.1 months. All patients included in this study had right iliac fossa pain lasting more than three months. We performed radiological contrast studies to verify appendicolithiasis of irregularity of appendicular wall. Patient with mild symptoms were excluded, only patients that have symptoms that cause disability were operated. We compared pain according to localization, duration and character. We evaluated the pain one month after operation and compared its characteristics with preoperative pain. There is strong evidence that postoperative pain is significantly lower in operated patients and most of them are without any symptoms after operation.