Childhood appendicitis in Zaria: a retrospective study.

Very little had been reported about childhood appendicitis from Africa. This retrospective report comprises two parts. One part is an overview of appendicitis in 207 children operated upon between January, 1981 and December, 1990 and the other involved a detailed study of 44 patients seen in the last 2 years of that decade. Overall, there were 135 males and 72 females, aged 4 years and younger than 15 years. 78 children were operated upon between 1989 and 1990 and only the records of 44 patients had detailed enough information for inclusion in this study. The common symptoms of appendicitis in children were: vague abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation and fever. The common signs were high grade pyrexia, dehydration, generalized or localized abdominal tenderness. In the larger group, 105 patients presented with perforation, 47 with gangrene, only 26.6% presented with uncomplicated appendicitis. In the smaller group 45.5% presented with perforation, 8 patients had wound infection. Four patients died; giving a mortality of 9%.