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After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
101–110 of 212 posts
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#102Article says sick leave on antibiotics was 11 days compared to 22 with the invasive surgery. The non invasive surgery only has you taking it easy for 7 days with no lifting anything over 10 pounds for a bit after that. They send you home from the hospital after 2 days. Most people resume work during the initial week.
I had the non-invasive version a year or so ago. That matches my experience pretty much exactly.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I meant the overall principle of maintain rather than remove.
So... braces? It's cheaper just to pull them. You really have to if you're someone like me whose mouth was too small for them to even come in. My wisdom tooth extraction was a shit show for that reason, but I've had all my 12 year molars removed since then, the last one a couple of weeks ago, and the recovery is pretty easy. (They wanted to root canal it and crown it... I was like bro just pull it because otherwise w…
Fillings. For people who have reasonably well aligned wisdom teeth (not impacted, functional teeth), some dentists are inclined to remove them anyway; others to treat any decay which shows up but otherwise leave them alone. Again, this is something where norms differ by country.
Edit: Wait, you’ve had all your _second_ molars removed? That seems very unusual. I’m a little surprised the dentis was willing to do it, unless there was a big problem that couldn’t be dealt with otherwise.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#104I'm so confused. From Wikipedia: > Appendicitis is caused by a blockage of the hollow portion of the appendix. This is most commonly due to a calcified "stone" made of feces. Inflamed lymphoid tissue from a viral infection, parasites, gallstone, or tumors may also cause the blockage... The combination of inflammation, reduced blood flow to the appendix and distention of the appendix causes tissue injury and tissue de…
> Or are the antibiotics for dealing with an actual ruptured appendix If your appendix ruptures, it is life threatening and has to come out. Most appendix removals happen before the appendix ruptures. The conclusion of the study is that high doses of antibiotics is an effective way to prevent the appendix from rupturing without surgery.
I think what he is saying is that "viral infection, parasites, gallstone, or tumors" doesn't include bacteria.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Or are the antibiotics for dealing with an actual ruptured appendix If your appendix ruptures, it is life threatening and has to come out. Most appendix removals happen before the appendix ruptures. The conclusion of the study is that high doses of antibiotics is an effective way to prevent the appendix from rupturing without surgery.
I still have the question: what about the 'stone'? Do antibiotics cure that somehow? Or is that the reason that 30% of those treated with antibiotics ultimately have the surgery?
Just a guess, but maybe they can do the same thing they do with kidney stones with shock-wave therapy, though I feel like they would mention that somewhere in wiki or the article.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#106I'm so confused. From Wikipedia: > Appendicitis is caused by a blockage of the hollow portion of the appendix. This is most commonly due to a calcified "stone" made of feces. Inflamed lymphoid tissue from a viral infection, parasites, gallstone, or tumors may also cause the blockage... The combination of inflammation, reduced blood flow to the appendix and distention of the appendix causes tissue injury and tissue de…
I thought the stuff in your gut wasn't feces until it'd been through at least the small intestine?
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctor: in your case, kills you in about 24-48 hours. I had mine out as well. I was 19. My dad drove me to the hospital. Doc slipped his finger up my bum, said, “you have appendicitis. You need surgery. Now.” I was being operated on quickly after that. It had ruptured. So it goes.
>Doc slipped his finger up my bum Is this a standard way to diagnose appendicitis?
I was taught by a computer game that it's diagnosed by palpating the four quadrants of the abdomen and doing an ultrasound. A lot of the decoy cases were just gas; hold for observation until they fart it out.
This wasn't in the game, but I presume it may also be necessary to do a pregnancy test (ectopic?), urinalysis for urinary tract infection, swabs for genital tract infection, blood draw for white blood cell count, and maybe look for other bowel conditions, kidney stones, gallstones, clots, torsions, cysts, or diverticula with the ultrasound.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#108.
You're literally playing with your life.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Appendicitis will kill you! And the surgery in most cases will save you. :) At least in my case. I technically died from a ruptured appendix and spent 9 days in ICU. The doctors delayed surgery to see if the antibiotics would work. This was ~10 or so years ago.
Can you give more details of "technically died"? Any after-life experience?
That's not a phrase a physician would typically use. Laypeople sometimes use it to describe respiratory and/or cardiac arrest.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#110.
Waiting cures a wide range of problems, that don't end up killing you.
It's really hard to separate 'doing a rain dance' and 'just waiting' when you have a sample size of 1.