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Article: Acute appendicitis: pregnancy complicates this diagnosis: in pregnant women, the clinical signs and test results that typically are used to diagnose appendicitis become unreliable. What do you rely on instead?
- Article from:
- JAAPA-Journal of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Haymarket Media, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Acute appendicitis is the most common extrauterine surgical emergency in pregnancy, (1) occurring in up to 1 in 1,500 pregnancies, and appendectomy is the most common general surgical procedure performed on pregnant women. (2,3) Appendicitis occurs in pregnant women with the same frequency as in nonpregnant women. However, pregnancy itself makes diagnosis difficult, and a delay in diagnosis increases the risk of fetal-maternal mortality. (4-6) The major predictor of mortality is perforation of the appendix; the risk of perforation increases over the term of the pregnancy. (3,4)
Appendicitis can occur at any point in pregnancy, although the condition seems to ...