HOW TO PREVENT APPENDICITIS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1929, Page 8

HOW TO PREVENT APPENDICITIS

DTET AND HABIT. (By SIR W. ARBUTT-INOT LAN 1 ' Bart., in the London “ Daily Mail.”) The appendix is a little worm-like tube which is blind at one end and opens by the other into the commencement of the large bowel or cesspool of the intestinal canal. It possesses a muscular coat and a lining of mucous membrane. The mucous lining secretes material which in the ordinary course is discharged into the large bowel as it is formed. Should the contents of this tube collect and stagnate in ’t—in other word* should the appendix become constipated—its accumulated secretions may form a hard mass which, increasing in size, will annoy and -irritate its lining membrane and produce an inflammation of it which may vary widely in intensity. Solid material, may also escape from the large bowel into ,the appendix and cause irritation in a similar manner. Foreign bodies, such as shot, pins, c-tc., are occasionally found in it and may produce appendicitis. The most common source of inflammation of the appendix is the extension into it of that inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large bowel which-is commonly spoken of as colitis and which is produced by constipation. When the mucous membrane of the appendix becomes inflamed and swollen the escape of its secretions into the large bowel is often blocked and products of inflammation are dammed hack in it. Any inflammation of the appendix must necessarily he a source of anxiety since by the spread of infection through its coats or by a run-"i-(i nr ulceration ol the walls of the tube .infection may extend directly to the general cavity of the abdomen, where all the viscera are covered by the peritoneum, and death may vapidly ensue. ' The peritoneum is a shiny membrane which allows of the free movement of the several organs on one another and upon the wall of the abdomen. Through the formation of inflammatory adhesions the poisonous matter- may he localised to the region of the inflamed appendix and an abscess ,mAy result. Any pain or tenderness in the right «roin. where the appendix is situated, should determine the sufferer to obtain medical advice at once. ,o avoid appendicitis it is only necos sary to ensure hv diet and habit a perfect action of the intestine's, or in other words a complete freedom from constipation, even in its mildest form.