PHYSIOLOGIC BEHAVIOR OF THE HUMAN APPENDIX AND THE PROBLEM OF APPENDICITIS

Abstract

PART 1. INTRODUCTION I. PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY Although a host of theories as to the etiology of acute appendicitis has been offered, many with strong supporting evidence, the disease has not been proved capable of experimental production either in man or in related species except by the obstructive mechanism.¹ By longitudinal section of 91 surgically removed appendixes fixed in solution of formaldehyde, Wangensteen and Bowers² found all the gangrenous specimens to show obstruction of the lumen, but in only 72 per cent of 43 cases of acute suppurative appendicitis was obstruction demonstrable by this method, leaving 28 per cent of the group, or 12 cases, in which no obstruction could be demonstrated. Through the studies reported in this paper it has been shown that a functional factor exists which may reasonably explain the absence of organic obstruction in some cases. Experiments will be outlined which have approached