“Idleness is an appendix to nobility…”
Robert Burton
My recent mention of appendectomy in a blog has triggered me. The surgical nerd has emerged. When you are shown how to perform your first appendicectomy, you are told to make your incision over the point two thirds of the distance from the umbilicus to the anterior superior iliac spine. You are told that this is McBurney’s point. I am sad to inform you that you have been lied to. In 1889 American Surgeon Charles McBurney published a paper entitled Experience with Early Operative Interference in Cases of Disease of the Vermiform Appendix. To quote the great man from that very article, “the seat of greatest pain, determined by the pressure of one finger, has been very exactly between an inch and a half and two inches from the anterior spinous process of the ilium on a straight line drawn from that process to the umbilicus“. There was no mention of a point, no advice regarding surgical incisions, no mention of any two thirds or indeed any one third. Sorry. #laparoscopyhasresolvedallthis #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 