INTRODUCTION: The literature is replete with articles of foreign-body appendicitis and periappendicitis, but to our knowledge there are only two reports of extraintestinal foreign bodies causing contact appendicitis.
CASE PRESENTATION: A 47-year old woman presented to the emergency department with a 24-hour history of right iliac fossa pain, nausea and vomiting, high fever and palpable right iliac fossa mass. The patient had an anamnestic of systemic lupus erythematosus, that caused acute pericarditis with effusion, that was treated with pericardiotomy and a pericardial drain. The laboratory tests showed leukocytosis The plain abdomen film showed no radiologic signs corresponding to acute abdomen, while the computed tomography revealed a radio-opaque formation in the right iliac fossa, corresponding to the palpable mass. Exploratory laparotomy revealed a pericardial drain. The microbiologic analysis of the abscess revealed Salmonella. The postoperative course of the patient was uneventful.
CONCLUSION: Acute appendicitis due to a foreign body, without an anamnestic of either surgery or injury may cause a severe diagnostic dilemma. The computed tomography images may lead to logic riddles that have to be solved by an explorative laparotomy. Foreign bodies rarely cause acute abdomen, nevertheless the probability has to be considered when an interventional technique has been applied even if the location of the intervention is far from the abdominal cavity.