Of all the surgeries in general surgery, appendix surgery can be considered the smallest and most basic surgery. In the past, when we were in school, the teacher often encouraged interns to come to the stage to help patients cut their appendixes. In the concept of the vast majority of people, the appendix is an optional organ, useless, but also easy to inflame and cause stomach pain, inflamed and suppurative perforation may also cause peritonitis, life-threatening, not as good as everything.
In fact, you may not think that this slender "earthworm"-like tissue is an immune organ.
1. The appendix is a lymphatic organ, and there are many lymphocytes and lymph nodes on the appendix wall, so it belongs to the organ with immune effect. During the developmental phase of the body, the appendix is able to function as a lymphatic organ, promoting the maturation of B lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) and the production of immunoglobulin class A antibodies. That is to say, the appendix mainly exerts the body's humoral immunity.
2. The appendix can simultaneously provide local immunity, absorption and response to antigens in the intestine. This local immune system responds to physiological immune responses as well as foods and drugs, and it plays an important role in controlling bacterial or viral antigens.
3. The appendix is also a probiotic storage organ with a lot of intestinal probiotics in it. An appendix is not necessarily needed for the gastrointestinal tract to function properly, but when an intestinal infection occurs and causes diarrhea, the infection not only dehydrates the intestine and robs of nutrients, but also destroys beneficial bacteria in the intestine. Once the intestine is emptied and the flora is out of balance, beneficial bacteria in the appendix will appear, re-maintaining balance in the intestinal flora.
Some people say that cutting the appendix increases the risk of bowel cancer?
According to data, in the autopsy of colon cancer in 608 cases, the proportion of appendectomy performed before death accounted for 35.2% of the total, while only 24% of the 679 non-cancer autopsies had appendectomy. The rate of appendectomy was found to increase significantly in the tumor group compared with the control group, so it is believed that appendectomy may increase the risk of malignancy.
In 2021, Professor Liu Bingrong, Dean of the Gastroenterology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, and his team member Master Song Mingyang published a research review in the international journal "Expert Review of Gastrointestinal Hepatology" under the title of "Long-term Effects of Appendectomy on the Human Body".
According to the review, most studies currently believe that appendectomy is related to the occurrence of human tumors, including colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer and lymphoma. A large cohort study of 75,979 cases of appendectomy and 303,640 cases without appendectomy found that the overall incidence of colorectal cancer in people with an appendix was 14% higher than in the control group, and that this risk was higher 1.5 to 3.5 years after appendectomy.
In fact, there is no authoritative study to prove that appendectomy increases the risk of cancer. Most scholars believe that the reason why the incidence of colon cancer in people with appendectomy is high is because the two have common precipitating factors, which are parallel rather than causal. For example, staying up late, overeating, unclean diet, repeated gastrointestinal dysfunction, low immunity and so on. These are also some of the triggers for colon cancer.
Therefore, if the appendix is inflamed, you can first infuse anti-inflammatory treatment, but do not refuse surgical resection for fear of increasing the risk of cancer. When the appendix is suppurative, or even at risk of perforation, the appendix is no longer much functioning, and surgical resection is the only effective treatment. After all, there are many immune organs and immune cells in adults, and this immune function of the appendix is insignificant.