A Cross Sectional Study of the Position of Appendix in South Indian Population, Comparison with Western Population, and Its Diagnostic Dilemma

Abstract

BACKGROUND Appendicitis is a common clinical condition but sometimes diagnosis is delayed when appendix is found at a rare location. The present study was conducted to find out various clinical presentations of appendicitis, to evaluate its various positions in South Indian population and compare the same with western population. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted among a total of 1000 patients (631 males and 369 females) taken from Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India, from 2018 to 2019 with an age range of 18 to > 60 years of both sexes. The clinical symptoms were recorded, demographic details were collected. RESULTS The present study included 631 (63.1%) male and 369 (36.9%) female patients including the age category 18 to > 60 years old patients. The anatomical locations of the appendix which were as follows: retrocecal in 860 individuals (86%), pelvic in 110 patients (11%), postileal in 10 (10%), preileal in 10 (10%), subhepatic in 8 individuals (0.8%), paracolic and subcaecal in 1 person respectively (0.1%). In our study, the mean distribution of gender by age in the study population was 157.75 males and 92.25 females. Length of appendix > 119 mm was found in total individuals (32.9%) i.e., maximum than other studies. These results showed an extreme statistically significant P value. CONCLUSIONS The present study successfully compared south Indian population with western population. The clinical symptoms were recorded, details of demography, age and sex were collected successfully. KEYWORDS Anatomical Locations, Appendix, Appendectomy, South Indian, Western Population