ABSTRACT

Familial Mediterranean fever is an autosomal recessive inherited disease characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and pain secondary to polyserositis, mainly of the abdomen and joints. The symptoms are sudden onset, occur before the age of 20 in 90% of the patients and generally decrease spontaneously within 1-4 days. Because of similar clinical and laboratory settings, it is difficult to differentiate an attack of Familial Mediterranean fever from acute appendicitis and other acute abdominal conditions. Therefore preoperative evaluation is very important to prevent unnecessary surgical approach in Familial Mediterranean fever patients with abdominal attacks. In these circumstances, contrast enhanced abdominal tomography may be preferred if there is still doubt about the diagnosis. We report a case of perforated appendicitis and Familial Mediterranean fever whom we evaluated with contrast enhanced abdominal tomography.

Keywords: Appendicitis, computed tomography, Mediterranean fever