This question bugged me for a few hours. I tried searching over stedman's dictionary to no avail. I wanted to know what it was exactly so I could fully understand the article I was reading regarding abdominal pain. At first, I wanted to simply SMS a friend to help me elucidate on the matter. It was then that I realized that I should just search it over the internet and blog about it later (at least we get a new entry at the same time).
To cut the long story short, what exactly are the peritoneal signs?
Answer:
Pain is a symptom described by a patient; tenderness is the response to being touched. Two signs, called peritoneal signs, suggest that the lining of the abdomen is inflamed and surgery may be needed: rebound tenderness and guarding. Rebound tenderness is when the doctor presses on a part of the abdomen and the patient feels more tenderness when the pressure is released than when it is applied. Guarding refers to the tensing of muscles in response to touch.
reference:
http://heartburn.about.com/od/otherdigestivedisorder1/a/appendicitis_2.htm
Additional reads:
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-are-peritoneal-signs
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/appendicitis/
http://www.meditec.com/abdominal-examination/
by:
Ellery Ivan Apolinario