Appendix showing perforation
GC.12221
Appendix showing perforation.
From a female patient, who had a history of left side abdominal pain which later became generalised to the lower abdomen. The abdomen was distended, resonant and tender, there was tenderness in the left fornix.
At operation peritonitis was found with frank pus in the pelvis, intestinal distension and fibrin deposition an the peritoneal surface, the appendix was lying in the pelvic position and towards the left being in close apposition to the pelvic colon.
The appendix had perforated and a faecolith was lying free in the peritoneal cavity.
The specimen here shows how the appendix is grossly oedematous, and gangrenous with haemorrhagic effusion. A large perforation is present close to the base and two smaller perforations are obvious more distally. Note that the perforations are on the anti-mesenteric aspect of the appendix.
