The Impact of Fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan on Incidence of Acute Appendicitis

Background: fasting during the holy month of ramadan(fasting) for muslims is a religiou s duty. the impact of fastingon some diseases has been reported in medical literature. thisstudy evaluated the effects of fasting on appendicitis. in thispopulation-ba sed descriptive study, we investigated whetherthe incidence of acute appendiciti s differs during fasting comparedto other non fasting lunar months.patients and methods: a retrospective study was carried outon patients with pathologically documented diagnosis of acuteappendicitis attending our surgery department during threeconsecutive hijri years, from november 5, 2000 to december4, 2002. the annual incidence of acute appendicitis was comparedbetween three months, before, during and after ramadan.results: the total number of documented appendicitis were 414,423 and 407 for three consecutive years of 2000 to 2002 (1421 to1423, islamic lunar years) respectively. the overall incidence ofacute appendicitis in people aged from 15 to 70 years was171.53/100,000 per year. compared with the mean monthly occurrenceof appendicitis, a statistically significant reduction in theincidence of appendicitis was found during ramadan, whereas,the frequency of acute appendicitis increased significantly in themonth following ramadan (p<0.001) .conclusion: the incidences rate of acute appendicitis wassignificantly lower in the holy month of ramadan, which wasmost likely due to the fasting . bowel resting could reduce therisk of appendi citis but more investigation is recommended .