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Summary
Summary
In 15 years, sixty-two patients underwent appendicectomy during pregnancy or the puerperium. Appendicitis was confirmed microscopically in thirty-five cases. During pregnancy the appendix may be displaced upwards by the enlarging uterus but in our series abdominal pain located in the lower right quadrant was still the most common presenting symptom. Abdominal tenderness and rebound tenderness were the most common physical findings, the latter being less common in advanced pregnancy. Laboratory tests were of little help in selecting patients for surgery. Operation was performed within 24 hours from the onset of pain in 73 per cent of all cases. There was no maternal mortality. The price of a short observation period to avoid delay in treatment was a degree of clinical overdiagnosis: twenty-seven patients had a normal appendix. In this group of patients, the negative laparotomy was associated with a loss of three fetuses compared with only two in the group of 35 patients with appendicitis. Wound infection occurred in two cases in each of the groups.