After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
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Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#2Got confused there for a moment, thought it was about PDF files...
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#3So what is the biological mechanism at work here? Take boatloads of antibiotics and kill most of your intestinal flora, so that inflammation on the appendix is reduced? (If I'm completely of the mark please correct me, it's been years since I had any biology related coursework)
With all the recent studies of the evolving antibiotic-resistant properties of bacteria and the importance of mantaining a healthy intestinal flora and how much the gut influences the brain, I am not sure that this treatment is necessarily preferable to modern appendix removal surgery. That said, if given the option, I'd probably prefer this than getting cut open (even if the incision with modern techniques is very very small).
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#4It's interesting, an acquaintance of mine had this happen. Hospitalized, with antibiotics, but just fine, no knife.
Definitely surprising to hear about, but I'm glad we're still learning about these kinds of things. Imagine all the things we take for granted that are simply superstition when examined closely.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#5So what is the biological mechanism at work here? Take boatloads of antibiotics and kill most of your intestinal flora, so that inflammation on the appendix is reduced? (If I'm completely of the mark please correct me, it's been years since I had any biology related coursework) With all the recent studies of the evolving antibiotic-resistant properties of bacteria and the importance of mantaining a healthy intestinal…
I'm guessing you still have to take antibiotics when you have any surgery to reduce chance of getting an infection.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#6Got confused there for a moment, thought it was about PDF files...
haha ... abe chutiye !!!
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#7This is a tangent but... Medical Science is an interesting institution. It's a huge, formalized truth-values finding process...
A half sibling of Law (the other formal truth finding institution) and Science (the abstract unformalized institution).
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#8this qualifier is interesting:
> researchers led by Paulina Salminen randomly assigned 530 patients that showed up in the hospital with an acute, uncomplicated appendicitis to get either a standard, open surgery to remove their inflamed organ or a course of antibiotics. (By “uncomplicated,” the authors mean there weren’t other issues like perforation, abscess, or suspicion of a tumor.)
although if your appendix is already perforated then it's a bit late to try to prevent it from perforating by cutting it out, so fair enough.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#9So no need to have appendixes removed prior to being stationed in Antarctica anymore?
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#10So no need to have appendixes removed prior to being stationed in Antarctica anymore?
i think this is for the scenario where you have uncomplicated acute appendicitis that can be treated in time.
there can still be scenarios where you developed acute appendicitis, it isn't treated in time (by either surgery or antibiotics), it perforates, possibly causing "infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity"
so i'd guess that removing the thing before there are any symptoms would still reduce risk, although maybe the cost-benefit tradeoff is a bit less clear.