Appendectomy?

I have talked with several of my friends and coworkers about their hysterectomies, and a few of them told me something very puzzling. Some of them had appendectomies while having their hysterectomies. None of them could tell me why, except "that's what the doctor wanted to do." My question is, is this a common practice or are the doctors in my are just getting carried away with the scalpels? I haven't seen a post or read any literature where this was mentioned, and none of my friends were having problems with their appendix prior to the surgery.

My doctor told me it was common practice years ago to take it out anytime abdominal surgery was done, to avoid an appendectomy later, but that they've gone away from that. He said it prolongs the surgery and can cause infection. He told me he will examine mine, and only take it out if it doesn't look healthy.

Thanks for telling me that! One of my friend's surgeries lasted 7 hours and I was wondering if the appendix had anything to do with that. I'm just not like them...I like to ask questions and apparently they don't.

When my mom had surgery for an ovarian cyst, they took out her appendix because it was on the wrong side. It was healthy but the concern was that, if she ever had an appendictis attack, they would not find it in time before it burst because it wasn't where it was supposed to be!

I was told by my gyn onc and consented to having my gall baldder removed during my hysterectomy if the gall bladder looked bad. I am happy my gall bladder passed muster!

Thanks for that bit of info. My doc hasn't mentioned removing anything else but at least I won't be in total shock at the pre op if he does!

My dr took my appendix out during one of the laps before I had a hyst..it had endo and cancer growing on it..

I have heard of it being done. When I had gallbaldder surgery (my only other surgical procedure) they were going to take out my appendix, but there were complications due to stones that had lodged in my common duct, so the appendix remained due to time contraints. LOL!

One really cool thing, with surgery, is that they, most likely, will look around while they are in there to make sure that all is well.

My Dr. found something on my liver, so I was sent for a post-op CAT scan. Turned out to be a benign cyst. Beauty is, she looked, saw something questionable, and was able to look at it while I was in the hospital.