Amoebic appendicitis--a rare entity

Appendectomy is the most common surgical procedure performed in routine general surgical practice. However, not all the appendices removed, are submitted for histopathological examination in this part of the world. We reviewed 1400 appendices received by our department from within our hospital and from outside the hospital. Of these 13 cases were reported as amoebic appendicitis. These patients did not have any different clinical presentation from the patients who were reported as acute appendicitis without amoebae. Microscopically these appendices had minimal neutrophil polymorph infiltration accompanied by tissue necrosis and amoebic trophozoites within the appendiceal wall. After histological diagnosis, different tests (IHA and stool examination) were done to exclude a possibility of secondary involvement of the appendix, on 8 patients from our hospital which were negative, thus confirming that these patients had primary appendiceal involvement. Hence we recommend that all the appendices removed should be subjected for histological examination, since ths may help in subsequent management of these patient