Appendicitis epidemic?

[beth_leonard]

As of last weekend the fourth person I've known personally has had their appendix out in the last 18 months. In the previous 10 years I think I've only known one person to have appendicitis. These people have ranged in age from 16 to 51, so I don't feel it's just my generation of friends aging. Two of the people I see on a weekly basis, one several times a year, and the other at least yearly.

Is this just a coincidence? Or is appendicitis on the rise? If it is on the rise, how would I find out? What could be causing it? Share your appendicitis stories here. Is it going up recently? Or are cases of people you've known evenly distributed in your past?

--Beth

Comments

[feuervogel]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=2239906
is the most recent (1990) report on appendicitis I found. Searching on 'appendicitis incidence' is probably your best bet.

I haven't seen any reports in MMWR, so it could be coincidence.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Rare events are more likely to be clustered than evenly distributed -- we proved that in probability at Mudd :).

Of course it's possible there's some shared causal factor among these folks promoting appendicitis, if they know each other or have similar habits or whatever, as seems possible since they're in your social circle.

I haven't had appendicitis. One kid at my school did a few years ago -- his band entertained us all during morning recess (he was an unbelievable drummer), and later I heard he'd been carted off to the emergency room immediately afterward.

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

The first case of appendicitis in someone I actually know just happened this month. She's got a 4-month old baby, and I carried him to the car while her husband carried her out to take her to the ER. I later heard that her appendix had burst.

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

My sister had appendicitis about six weeks ago, and my brother-in-law (married to a different sister) had it maybe two weeks after that. The last person in my family to have it was my mom in 1986.

[katchoo-too.livejournal.com]

This is the second post I have read today with people talking about a rash of appendicitis in their social circles. Scary...

[steuard.livejournal.com]

The last case I can remember affecting anyone I know was my high school girlfriend... shortly before she became my girlfriend. So no observed upswing here.

[robszewczyk.livejournal.com]

Both the people I know who have had appendicitis are named Robert, so perhaps that's a risk factor. ;-)

One was around 1981 (in college), the other in 1977 (age 2).

--AM/Beth

[beth_leonard]

For these I don't think they're related other than all being Americans -- one is my friend Mike in Denver, another is the leader of the band at church, another is one of Jon's tutoring students, and the fourth is my friend's sister living down in LA.

It's things like the recent phalyates in plastics scare that make me wonder. Is there something we're doing in the environment/food now that we weren't doing 10 years ago that is irratating our appendices.

It may be just random rare clustered events, that's why I'm seeking more data. If it seems like there's enough coincidences (and another friend posted that I'm her second LJ friend to blog on this topic this week) then it might be worth my doing something about it.

Right now the only action I can think of is to write to the SJ Mercury News health writer and see if they can look into it.

--Beth

[beth_leonard]

I hope she's ok! I hear that things can get dicy if it bursts.

--Beth

[beth_leonard]

This would seem to be a data point for the hypothesis that it might be on the rise.
--Beth

[beth_leonard]

I wonder if we have any overlapping cases. I was thinking of Mike C. who moved to Denver, Peter S. who leads the band at St. Tims, one of Jon's tutoring students, and Lynn's sister Karen. It's possible someone else we both know had it and I've forgotten about that case already.
--Beth