appendiceal position

Last reviewed 01/2018

The appendix is freely mobile and consequently may come to rest, and create symptoms when inflamed, in the following positions:

• retrocaecal
• pelvic
• postileal

It is the later, somatic and not the earlier, visceral afferent signals that localise pain to these sites.

If malrotation is present, the patient may present with pain in the left lower quadrant.