Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!brl-adm!brl-smoke!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-smoke.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Appendicitis - how common is it?
Message-ID: <1933@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 19-Mar-86 17:10:49 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.1933
Posted: Wed Mar 19 17:10:49 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 05:38:26 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 19

I've been wondering just how common appedicitis really is. We have all
heard of it, and I have the impression that the removal of the appendix
is one of the most common surgical procedures, but I don't have a good
feel for just how likely it is for someone to actually get appendicitis.
Is it so common that I should think of it every time I have some
discomfort or pain in my right side? Or is it really a rather rare
condition, and only one in a thousand right-side pains are a result of
that cause? If it is one-in-ten, or even one-in-a-hundred, I would pay a
lot more attention to a pain in that area than I would if the odds were
one-in-a-thousand, or one-in-a-million.

I don't know anyone who has had appendicitis (unless someone I know
slightly had it once, and never had occasion to mention the fact in my
hearing). So I have no "handle" or "feel" on how rare or common a
condition it is. Also, is it something that was once much more common
than it is today? Or has it persisted at about the same frequency per
unit of population over the years?

Will