Appendectomies that Almost Went Wrong
VIROJ WIWANITKIT, M.D.*
Affiliation : * Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok I 0330, Thailand.
A middle aged female presented to an emergency room complaining of pain in her lower abdomen. It had started in the epigastrium and moved to a lower midline location with some re- bound but normal bowel sounds. The admitting doctor consulted a surgeon who diagnosed acute appendicitis and took her to the operating room and started spinal anesthesia. A McBurney incision was made and no appendix was found after a prolonged search. It was only then that the anesthesiologist noted that the patient's heart sounds were on the right side and that they were dealing with a case of situs inversus. An inflamed appendix was then removed through a second midline incision and all ended well.
Keywords : Ethics, Wrong, Appendectomy
