Appendicitis medication that is effective in relieving the symptoms

The appendix is a small pouch that connects to the large intestine. Its position is on the lower right side of your stomach. The appendix can become inflamed when it becomes blocked and infected with bacteria and this is known as appendicitis (appendicitis). If not treated promptly, the appendix can rupture at any time, spreading infection, and ultimately be fatal. Apart from surgery, the symptoms of appendicitis can also be relieved by drugs available at pharmacies. Anything?

Medicines to relieve symptoms of appendicitis at the pharmacy

Infected inflammation of the appendix will cause pain in the middle or on the right side of the stomach.

Complaints of abdominal pain in the lower right are reported by about 80 percent of people diagnosed with appendicitis. The pain generally gets worse when sneezing, coughing, and taking deep breaths.

In addition to stomach pain, appendicitis is often accompanied by symptoms of fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, and unable to pass gas (farting).

To deal with various symptoms of appendicitis that are still mild, the doctor will usually prescribe drugs that can be purchased at a pharmacy, such as:

1. Painkillers

Your doctor may suggest analgesic drugs or NSAID painkillers such as paracetamol to treat pain due to inflammation.

These two drugs work to reduce the production of prostaglandins in the brain. Prostaglandins are hormones that cause pain.

Apart from relieving abdominal pain due to appendicitis, this drug can also relieve fever that may appear when the body is fighting an infection.

You can generally get this painkiller for appendicitis at a pharmacy or drug store without redeeming a doctor's prescription.

2. Anti-nausea drugs

Often times, the symptoms of appendicitis are accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are the body's natural response to fighting infections that attack the digestive system.

One type of anti-nausea medication that is commonly prescribed to relieve symptoms of appendicitis before surgery is ondansetron.

This drug works by blocking the neurotransmitter receptors that cause vomiting. Neurotransmitters are a collection of nerve cells in the brain that receive signals from various locations in the body and then generate the appropriate reactions.

When neurotransmitters in the brain receive a signal from the stomach that alerts them to infection, they then tell the body to vomit.

3. ORS

Inflammation of the appendix also often causes dehydration in some people, especially those who experience symptoms of diarrhea.

Dehydration occurs because an infection that attacks the appendix will indirectly decrease your appetite. This can trigger symptoms of dehydration because the body doesn't get enough fluid intake, either from food or drink, when appetite decreases.

In addition, appendicitis can also cause symptoms of nausea and vomiting which removes most of the body fluids. This is what also causes dehydration.

In most cases, dehydration can be relieved by drinking lots of water, fresh fruit juice without sugar, or warm soup. However, if it is severe, your doctor may recommend that you take ORS. You can get ORS solution at the pharmacy without having to redeem a doctor's prescription.

Antibiotics are the main medication for appendicitis

According to research from the UK published British Medical Journal (BMJ) , antibiotics are effective in treating about 63% of cases of mild acute appendicitis caused by a bacterial infection.

However, research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports not all diseases appendicitis can be treated and healed immediately only with antibiotics.

The study wanted to see the difference in improvement in the condition of patients with appendicitis who were operated on and those who were only given antibiotics. Of the total 59 thousand appendicitis patients studied, as many as 4.5% who only took antibiotics tended to experience symptoms again so they had to be hospitalized again.

The study also found that the risk of abscess formation (pus lumps) in appendicitis patients who only took antibiotics was higher than those in surgery.

Based on these results, most doctors and health experts in the world agree that surgery is still the main and best treatment option for appendicitis.

Antibiotic drugs taken before appendectomy

The main treatment is still surgery to remove the infected appendix. Appendectomy has been the standard treatment for appendicitis since 1889.

Even so, generally you will be prescribed antibiotics a few days before the appendectomy. Why? According to a study in the Scandinavian Journal of Surgery in 2013, antibiotic drugs function to reduce the risk of infectious complications before appendectomy.

Antibiotic drugs that are given before appendectomy generally come from the cephalosporin class such as cefotaxime and imidazole derivatives such as metronidazole.

The above studies also compared the efficacy of metronidazole and gentamicin in preventing the risk of infection before surgery. However, it turns out that the combination of cefotaxime and metronidazole is still more potent.

The combination of the drug metronidazole and cefotaxime is usually given to patients whose appendix has not yet been perforated (perforation or leakage).

However, antibiotics will also be given if the condition of the appendix before the operation was already injured, perforated, ruptured, or the tissue was dead.

Both of these drugs aim to prevent the appearance and spread of bacterial infections before appendectomy is performed.

Antibiotics are drunk again after appendectomy

Surgery is the single most effective way to treat appendicitis. Appendectomy can be done through open surgery (open appendectomy) with a large incision in the abdomen, or laparoscopic surgery (laparoscopic appendectomy) which is a smaller incision size.

Appendix surgery recovery is relatively fast and has minimal complications. After surgery, you will likely be hospitalized for 1-2 days. Now at this time, doctors also continue to prescribe you antibiotics to avoid the risk of infection in the appendix area. Even so, the type of antibiotic given may be different.

Antibiotic drugs that are usually given after surgery for a ruptured appendix are class two cephalosporins such as cefotetan. This drug serves to treat or prevent postoperative infections that are susceptible to being caused by bacteria.

The doctor will enter an antibiotic drug through an intravenous (IV) infusion to prevent serious infection of the abdominal cavity after removing your appendix. Still in the same study, antibiotic drugs given intravenously for 3-5 days were reported to be sufficient to help prevent infection from occurring.