How to confirm a diagnosis of chronic appendicitis

The diagnosis of chronic appendicitis usually requires a comprehensive evaluation of the following aspects: 1. Medical history review: Assess whether the patient has a history of acute appendicitis attacks and whether he/she has received anti-infective treatment with improvement. 2. Clinical symptoms: Monitor whether the patient experiences recurrent right lower quadrant abdominal pain, typically presenting as mild or irregular dull pain, sometimes accompanied by reflexive gastric discomfort, bloating, constipation, and other symptoms. 3. Physical examination: During abdominal palpation, focus on checking for fixed tenderness at McBurney's point in the right lower quadrant, with a relatively consistent location of tenderness. 4. Ancillary examinations: Include color Doppler ultrasound of the appendix, CT scan, or colonography to observe the morphology of the appendix, presence of thickening, inflammatory signs, and luminal narrowing. 5. Laparoscopic exploration: For patients with diagnostic difficulties, laparoscopic exploration can be considered to directly visualize the appendix and serve as the gold standard for definitive diagnosis.