Trauma has been reported as a cause of appendicitis on several cases in the literature. The present study reports the relationship between blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) of injury severity score less than 4 and appendicitis. A 17-year-old girl developed appendicitis after a minor BAT. An ecchymosis at the right lower quadrant misled the diagnosis, which was made 1 day later. Laparotomy revealed an inflamed appendix, a few enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes, contusion, as well as punctuated bleeding sites of the caecum. Moreover, based on a brief literature review, the different pathophysiological mechanisms and the difficulties of diagnosis of this entity are discussed. It is suggested that appendicitis should be considered as a possibility in the setting of right lower quadrant pain following minor BAT, when there is clinical suspicion of an inflammatory process within the right iliac fossa.
© 2012 The Authors. EMA © 2012 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.