LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Appendicitis: Conditions
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Patients with appendicitis may not have the reported classic clinical picture 37-45% of the time, especially when the appendix is located in an unusual place (see Relevant Anatomy). In such cases, imaging studies may be important but not always available. Patients with this condition usually have accessory signs that may be helpful for diagnosis. For example, the obturator sign is present when the internal rotation of the thigh elicits pain (ie, pelvic appendicitis), and the psoas sign is present when the extension of the right thigh elicits pain (ie, retroperitoneal or retrocecal appendicitis).
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BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis is the second most common cause of surgical abdominal disease in late adulthood. It is a serious condition: major errors in management are made frequently and the condition is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Data collected within a multicenter prospective trial and a literature review were used to analyze diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties in detail.
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The usual stay in the hospital after an appendectomy is 1-3 days, depending on your age, other medical problems and physical condition, if you have uncomplicated appendicitis. If your appendix is gangrenous or ruptured, you may stay in the hospital 7 days or longer. You can live a normal life without an appendix.
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The pain from appendicitis may change over time, so establishing a diagnosis can sometimes be difficult. In addition, abdominal pain can arise from a number of health problems other than appendicitis. Other conditions with abdominal pain that may resemble that of appendicitis include:
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Not properly detecting real cases of appendicitis is ... a major problem. A large independent research report (Graff et al., 2000 Acad Emerg Med Vol 7 n 11 pp 1244-55) of approximately 1,026 appendicitis patients from 12 hospitals across the northeastern United States reported that an average of 18.6% of patients (ranging from 10.6% to 27.8% per hospital) were incorrectly diagnosed as not having appendicitis and were sent home, only to return to the emergency room with acute appendicitis in an advanced or burst condition. If the Graff report is representative of the state-of-the-art diagnostics for appendicitis, then the 98% sensitivity level of AppyScore -- as reported by company's recent large-scale multi-hospital study -- demonstrates the substantial impact this screening test could have for life threatening misdiagnoses. The false negative diagnosis of appendicitis could become much less frequent using AppyScore, resulting in fewer patients with appendicitis being erroneously sent home.
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Symptoms of appendicitis may take 4–48 hours to develop. During this time, someone developing this condition may have varying degrees of loss of appetite, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Some may have constipation, diarrhea, or no change in bowel habits.
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