Department of Pediatric Surgery, Alexandoupolis University Hospital, Democritus University of Thrace School of Medicine, Alexandroupolis 68100, Greece.
Ital J Pediatr. 2011 Jul 25;37:35. doi: 10.1186/1824-7288-37-35.
To assess the incidence and the risk factors implicated in acute appendicitis in preschoolers in our region.
Over a 7-year period, 352 children underwent appendectomy for suspected acute appendicitis. Of these, data for 23 children were excluded because no inflammation of the appendix was found on subsequent histology. Of the remaining 329, 82 were ≤ 5 years old (i.e., preschool children) and 247 were 5-14 years old. These two groups of children were further divided according to their religion into Muslims and Christian Orthodox: 43 of the children aged ≤ 5 years were Muslims and 39 were Christian Orthodox. A household questionnaire was designed to collect data concerning age, gender, type of residence area, living conditions, vegetable consumption, and family history of surgery for acute appendicitis as preschool children. The removed appendices were also assessed histologically for the amount of lymphoid tissue.
Acute appendicitis of preschoolers developed more frequently in Muslims (39.4%) than in Christians (17.7%; p < 0.001). The lack of inside toilet facilities at home, overcrowded living conditions, living in rural areas, and the amount of appendix lymphoid tissue were significantly more frequent among the Muslim preschool children (p < 0.05), while there were no statistically significant differences between Muslim and Christian children with regard to gender, the family history of acute appendicitis, or the vegetable consumption (p > 0.05).
In our region, the percentage of preschool-aged Muslim children with acute appendicitis was remarkably high. One possible explanation for this finding could be the higher amount of lymphoid tissue in the wall of the appendix in Muslim preschool children together with their low standard of hygiene.
评估本地区学龄前儿童急性阑尾炎的发病率及相关危险因素。
在 7 年期间，有 352 名儿童因疑似急性阑尾炎而行阑尾切除术。其中 23 名儿童的资料因随后的组织学检查发现阑尾无炎症而被排除。在剩余的 329 名儿童中，82 名年龄≤5 岁（即学龄前儿童），247 名年龄为 5-14 岁。这两组儿童根据其宗教信仰进一步分为穆斯林和东正教基督教徒：≤5 岁的儿童中，43 名为穆斯林，39 名为东正教基督教徒。设计了一份家庭调查问卷，以收集有关年龄、性别、居住区域类型、居住条件、蔬菜食用情况和作为学龄前儿童行阑尾切除术的家族史等数据。还对切除的阑尾进行组织学评估，以评估其淋巴组织的数量。
穆斯林（39.4%）学龄前儿童急性阑尾炎的发病率明显高于基督教徒（17.7%）（p<0.001）。家中缺乏室内厕所设施、居住条件拥挤、居住在农村地区以及阑尾淋巴组织数量在穆斯林学龄前儿童中更为常见（p<0.05），而穆斯林和基督教儿童在性别、急性阑尾炎家族史或蔬菜食用方面无统计学显著差异（p>0.05）。
在本地区，急性阑尾炎的穆斯林学龄前儿童比例非常高。造成这一发现的一个可能原因是穆斯林学龄前儿童阑尾壁淋巴组织较多，同时他们的卫生标准较低。
