THE SEQUENCE OF THE PATHOLOGIC CHANGES IN APPENDICITIS.A STUDY OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LESIONS FOUND IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF APPENDICITIS, BASED ON THE PATHOLOGIC FINDINGS IN A SERIES OF OPERATIVE CASES.

Abstract

Within recent years much has been written concerning the pathology of appendicitis. The anatomic characteristics of the different varieties of appendicitis, together with the secondary lesions accompanying the primary appendiceal inflammation, have been most carefully described and abundant statistics dealing with the relative frequency of the different types of appendiceal and periappendiceal lesions exist. In spite of all this accumulated knowledge, the subject of the pathology of appendicitis is not by any means a closed chapter, but continues to be prominent in medical discussions and literature. The reason for this, perhaps, may lie in the fact that it has not yet been generally recognized that the different pathologic conditions, as they are encountered at operation in cases of appendicitis, represent, for the most part, simply different stages of an inflammatory process involving primarily the appendix and accompanied, in a large proportion of cases, by a more or less extensive secondary involvement of the peritoneal cavity.