Appendices removed at cesarean section: histopathology

Appendices removed from 100 healthy Nigerian Igbo women during elective cesarean operation and examined microscopically as three random cross sections showed that lesions categorized as luminal pus, luminal fibrosis, mucosal ulceration, muscular inflammation, crypt abscess and crypt necrosis were present in numerous sections. As elsewhere, these asymptomatic patients might have had clinical acute appendicitis in the puerperium. to explain the possible outcome in the rest of such patients, the crypt of Lieberkühn was advanced as a research-worthy histopathologic unit. Thus, in the natural history of the disease, both crypt abscess and crypt necrosis are contrastable bipolar lesions. In all probability, worldwide research on these intriguing lesions will reveal crucial clues to one or more facets of the pathogenesis of appendicitis. [Key words: Appendicitis, pathogenesis; appendix, histopathology]