Parasitic Cause of Acute Appendicitis In Najaf

Background & objectives : Acute appendicitis is the most common acute surgical condition of the abdomen .In spite of many researches & studies that had been performed on the acute appendicitis in general, very limited works talking about the role of the parasites in the causation of acute appendicitis This study was performed to investigate the preformed to investigate the prevalence rate of intestinal parasites in appendices of patients with clinically diagnosed acute appendicitis who arrived to AlNajaf city hospitals . Patients & methods : Prospective study included 500 patients from both sexes were done .from August 2001 to July 2002 .Excised appendices were examined macroscopically and microscopically for detection of parasitic infections . Examination of tissue digests was conducted for 80 specimens by using acidic pepsin solutions to determine the efficiency of different diagnostic methods of detecting parasitic infestations in appendix . Results : There were 318 males & 182 femals ,their ages ranging from 5 to 49 years .The total infection rate of appendices with intestinal parasites was 16.2 % (11.4% with heliminth and 4.8 % with protozoa). The prevalence of E.histolytica ; G. lamblia ; E.vermicular; A.lumbricoides ; H.nana and T.trichiura was 2.4 % ; 2.0% ; 10.0% ; 0.6% ; 0.6% and 0.2% respectively .H.nana and G.lamblia were isolated from the appendix for the first time in Iraq. The incidence of sigle parasitic infection was 85.18% against 14.81% for double infections, which was between E.vermicularis & E.histolytica (7.4%) while the lowest relationship was between E.vermicularis with T.trichiura and E.vermicularis with A.lumbricoides (102%) . Kufa Med.Journal 2009.VOL.12.No2. 63 Conclusion: Parasitic infection has a sensible role in the etiopathology of acute appendicitis in addition to its considerable affection on the human health in our people that require an intensive work to manage this problem .