Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor

2 Associate professor

Abstract

considering the structure of appendix,its great blood supply and lymphatic tissue,and its anatomical location it seems to have an immunologic role.there are no clear studies regarding the relation between appendectomy and cancer of digestive system.therefore,this stuty proposed for to clarify the relation between previous appendectomy and present gastrointestinal (GI)adenocarcinoma.the cancer group patients (n=406) were compared with no cancer group patients (n=374) from CCU and neurosurgery wards of two university of Kerman hospital.Kerman Darman and shahid Bahonar.all patients were interviewed and examined for previous appendectomy and Mcburney,s incision for appendix suegery prospectively.data analyzed by software of EPI6 and SPSS for windows.after matching of age and sex variables bu means of logistic regression test,previous appendectomy was 3.81 times more in cancer group than no cancer group.there was more prevalence of GI carcinoma in men than women (p<0.001).and there was increasing prevalence of GI carcinoma in relation to aging,especially 63 years old and older.considering that more than 1/3 of appendectomies are incidental appendectomy.(removal of healthy appendix during other abdominal and pelvic procedures.)this study hypothesized that the appendix seems to have an important role in preventing GI carcinoma,and offeres to reconsider the incidental appendectomy.

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