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All Signs And Symptoms Of Appendicitis, Antibiotics Taken, CT Clear, Still In Pain. Suggestions ?
My son has all of the signs and symptoms of appendicitis. I took him to our regular physician yesterday and he said that we had caught it in time that antibiotics would take care of it. We started the antibiotic last night. The doctor said if the pain continued to take him to the ER, so we did. The emergency room doctor ordered a CT scan and it came back clear. Not sure where to go from here. Do you have any suggestions?
Wed, 17 Jul 2013
Hi,
Thanks for writing in.
From your query, it looks like your son is having an acute investigated for which he was investigated thoroughly and all reports (including CT scan came as normal). This will naturally worry you as a parent.
There can be many medical situations that can be mimicking acute appendicitis. Some of them are
1. Typhilitis (inflammation of intestine)
2. Mesentric lymphadenopathy
3. Epiploic appendagitis
4. Kidney stones (this would surely have been seen on CT scan)
5. Acute gastroenteritis
Hence we must also think of above problems while ruling out acute appendicitis.
CT scan is an accurate investigation for diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
You may allow the course of antibiotics to be complete and report any further symptoms to your doctor.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for writing in.
From your query, it looks like your son is having an acute investigated for which he was investigated thoroughly and all reports (including CT scan came as normal). This will naturally worry you as a parent.
There can be many medical situations that can be mimicking acute appendicitis. Some of them are
1. Typhilitis (inflammation of intestine)
2. Mesentric lymphadenopathy
3. Epiploic appendagitis
4. Kidney stones (this would surely have been seen on CT scan)
5. Acute gastroenteritis
Hence we must also think of above problems while ruling out acute appendicitis.
CT scan is an accurate investigation for diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
You may allow the course of antibiotics to be complete and report any further symptoms to your doctor.
Hope this helps.
I find this answer helpful
Hi thanks for your question.
Appendicitis is mainly a clinical diagnosis supplemented by investigation like CBC that is complete blood count, which supports the clinical diagnosis. Investigations like ultrasound and CT scan are done only to rule out any other pathology responsible for pain abdomen. Normal CT scan report confirms the clinical diagnosis of appendicitis. First line treatment or treatment of choice for appendicitis is appendectomy that is surgical removal of appendix. Conservative treatment that is treating the patient with antibiotics is done when appendectomy is not possible due to any reason. Now your son is on conservative treatment, it will take some time for pain to settle down. Response to antibiotics can be monitored by parameters like decrease in pain and fever along with decrease in counts.
Hope this answers your question.
Appendicitis is mainly a clinical diagnosis supplemented by investigation like CBC that is complete blood count, which supports the clinical diagnosis. Investigations like ultrasound and CT scan are done only to rule out any other pathology responsible for pain abdomen. Normal CT scan report confirms the clinical diagnosis of appendicitis. First line treatment or treatment of choice for appendicitis is appendectomy that is surgical removal of appendix. Conservative treatment that is treating the patient with antibiotics is done when appendectomy is not possible due to any reason. Now your son is on conservative treatment, it will take some time for pain to settle down. Response to antibiotics can be monitored by parameters like decrease in pain and fever along with decrease in counts.
Hope this answers your question.
I find this answer helpful
1 user finds this helpful
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