APPENDICITIS

The vermifom appendix or appendix in short, is a small part of the bowel or intestine. It is situated on the right side of the abdomen at the junction of the small and large intestines. It is a small narrow sac approximately 10 cm long and 1 cm wide. The appendix is a vestigial organ, that is, it serves no useful purpose.

General abdominal pain is often all that the patient will complain of during the first few hours of his attack But after the first few hours it becomes more evident that the chief seat of pain is at [the iliac fossa], and the general pain then usually subsides. In every case the seat of greatest pain, determined by the pressure of one finger, has been very exactly between an inch and a half and two inches from the anterior spinous process of the ilium on a straight line drawn from that process to the umbilicus. -Charles McBurney, 1889