Antibiotics for Acute Appendicitis

It used to be simple – a child who presented to the doctor with the symptoms of inflammation and infection of the appendix was rushed to the operating room for an appendectomy. Now more and more episodes of acute appendicitis are treated with antibiotics and observation with a delay in removing the appendix.

This study’s authors reviewed 527 articles and found five with a total of 404 patients that met their criteria. All the patients were five to fifteen years old. The non-surgical treatment was followed for 168 patients and successful in 152. The risk of treatment failure was greatly increased when the patient had an appendicolith – a stone that forms in the appendix.

One of the strengths of modern medicine is the constant reevaluating of what is considered the best treatment. This is just one example of this process.