2017 Volume 42 Issue 6 Pages 952-956
We encountered 2 patients with diarrheal irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) refractory to general treatment, who experienced improvement of diarrheal IBS symptoms following appendectomy for appendicitis. Case 1 was a 47-year-old male patient with primarily diarrheal IBS who complained of approximately 10 watery bowel movements per day, on average. The chief complaint was epigastric pain. Under a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, laparoscopic appendectomy was performed. Following the surgery, the patient showed marked improvement of the IBS-related symptoms, with 1 to 2 ordinary bowel movement(s) per day. Case 2 was a 42-year-old female patient with diarrheal IBS complaining approximately 3 loose or watery bowel movements per day, on average, along with epigastric pain. The chief complaint was lower right quadrant abdominal pain. With a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, laparoscopic appendectomy was performed. Following the surgery, the patient showed marked improvement of the IBS-related symptoms, with one ordinary bowel movement every other day. We report these cases with some bibliographic considerations, as a thorough search conducted by us of the literature published in the website of the Japan Medical Abstracts Society failed to reveal any case reports of improvement of diarrheal IBS symptoms following appendectomy.
