Crohn’s disease of the appendix – a case report

Overview

Introduction:

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with unknown etiology. Although the disease may involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract, the most frequently affected site is the terminal ileum. Crohn’s disease itself is more common in women and in younger patients. Typical symptoms of the condition are diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss and fever. A part of patients may present with extraintestinal symptoms like exanthema, joint pain, conjunctivitis or less often a hepatic lesion. In our publication, we have reported a rare case of Crohn’s disease with isolated involvement of the appendix, in which the definitive diagnosis was established after the surgery.

Case report:

Our patient presented with atypical symptoms and endoscopy findings. The majority of patients with Crohn’s disease of the appendix present as if they had acute appendicitis.

Conclusion:

Appendiceal form of Crohn’s disease is a relatively rare variety of Crohn’s disease and is less aggressive than in the other locations. Surgical resection (appendectomy) is considered to be curative and the risk of relapse is very low.

Key words:

Crohn’s disease – appendix − differential diagnosis – treatment − surveillance