Recurrent appendiceal colic.

From 1962 through 1983, 1,869 appendectomies were performed at our institution. Careful review disclosed 11 patients (0.6 per cent) who had an appendectomy for recurrent pain in the right lower abdominal quadrant not associated with other classical symptoms of appendicitis. Seven patients had an urgent diagnostic barium enema during the course of the episode of pain for which they had an appendectomy and six of the seven were abnormal. All of the patients exhibited gross abnormality of the appendix, such as fecalith (four), torsion or kinking of the appendix (three), narrowed lumen (three) and purulent material in the lumen (one). However, three specimens were thought to be histologically normal. In a follow-up study of ten of 11 patients for two weeks to 20 years, there has been no recurrence of the abdominal pain in all but one patient.