Secondary appendicitis--a sign of some other intra-abdominal inflammation.

An operation was performed on a 37-year-old man with symptoms of acute appendicitis. A severely inflamed appendix was removed. Histology, however, showed an atypical picture of inflammation: the outer layers of the appendix were severely inflamed but the epithelium was intact. Re-laparotomy revealed an abscess around a perforated Meckel's diverticulum, with no evidence of complications at the site of appendicectomy. It appeared that the appendix had become inflamed directly from the primarily inflamed Meckel's diverticulum. The case shows that a careful exploration of the neighbouring organs as well as the dissection of the specimen by the surgeon himself is indicated during laparotomy despite detection of appendicitis. To distinguish the situation described here from classical appendicitis we suggest the term secondary appendicitis to define the direct invasion of inflammation to the appendix from an adjacent organ.