The Role of Viruses in Human Acute Appendicitis: a Systematic Literature Review

Overview

Journal Int J Colorectal Dis

Specialties Gastroenterology
General Surgery

Date 2023 Apr 17

PMID 37069433

Authors

Saber Soltani

Mina Mobini Kesheh

Goli Siri

Samireh Faramarzi

Ramin Shahbahrami

Mojtaba Didehdar

Yousef Erfani

Abbas Farahani

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: There have been debates about the human appendix function, and while previous research suggested it might be a vestigial organ with no functional significance, recent studies have pointed out that it might have an important role in the immune system. Acute appendicitis (AA) is a common cause of emergency abdominal surgery in the world. Some epidemiologic investigations have found an association between appendicitis and viral infections. In this study, we have reviewed systematically articles to discover viral infections that cause appendicitis and find any possible correlations between the two.

Methods: This systematic review was performed by searching among electronic databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE on viruses and appendicitis topics.

Results: Conducted search leads to 983 results in all databases after the duplicate removal and screening by title, abstract, and full-text based on inclusion criteria lead to 19 studies. There were several assays to detect the viruses, which are thought to be AA causative agents. RT-PCR and immunoassays were the mainstay methods to detect the probable cause.

Conclusion: Investigations suggested that some viruses including measles virus (MV), influenza virus, dengue fever virus (DFV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human herpesviruses, rotavirus, and adenovirus are associated with acute appendicitis. Despite the available reports, the specific mechanisms behind the relationship between acute appendicitis and viral infections are yet to be understood. Therefore, further investigations are necessary to find out the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of viral complications in appendicitis.

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