ISSN: 2165-7548
Thiago Vinicius Villar Barroso, Paulo Guilherme Oliveira Sales and Andy Petroianu
Background: Correct diagnosis of acute appendicitis is one of the most challenging issues in surgery. About 15% to 40% of all appendectomies result in the removal of morphologically normal appendices.
Objective: To assess values of the vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) in the presence of normal and inflamed appendices removed due to clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
Patients and Methods: The appendices removed from 76 patients were divided into three groups as follows: group 1: 50 morphologically normal appendices that were removed due to clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis; group 2: 10 normal appendices prophylactically removed during other surgical procedures; group 3: 16 inflamed appendices with a morphological aspect of acute appendicitis. Histological and immunohistochemical studies defined the characteristics of each appendix of all groups.
Results: Groups 1 and 2 did not differ between themselves, but group 3 showed a greater degree of color reaction for VIP than groups 1 and 2.
Conclusion: Morphologically normal appendices removed due to a clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis do not present the immunohistochemical changes for the VIP that is found in inflamed appendices.