Ten Horn's sign is a clinical sign used for diagnosing appendicitis, particularly in older adults.
Method
The patient lies on a couch. The examiner gently stretches the right spermatic cord using the thumb and index finger right about the testis in the right scrotum. For a patient with appendicitis, this causes pain in the right iliac fossa. The traction of spermatic cord is thought to cause right iliac fossa pain due to the apposition of the gonadal vessels against an inflamed appendix. The sensitivity and specificity of the Ten Horn's sign is unknown.
History
This sign was proposed by Carel Hendrik Leo Herman ten Horn (1884–1964).
References
- M.D, Mark E. Williams (21 June 2010). Geriatric Physical Diagnosis: A Guide to Observation and Assessment. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5160-9. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
- ^ Rastogi, Vaibhav; Singh, Devina; Tekiner, Halil; Ye, Fan; Mazza, Joseph J.; Yale, Steven H. (2019). "Abdominal Physical Signs and Medical Eponyms: Part II. Physical Examination of Palpation, 1907–1926". Clinical Medicine & Research. 17 (1–2): 47–54. doi:10.3121/cmr.2018.1426. ISSN 1539-4182. PMC 6546280. PMID 31160480.