Early postoperative outcome in open and laparoscopic appendectomy. Our comparative data analysis

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: After the introduction of laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) in 1981, it is used as one of the operative methods in the treatment of acute appendicitis ever since. Some of the surgeons almost completely replaced open appendectomy (OA) by its laparoscopic alternative, while others still have doubts about its universality. Early postoperative outcome has acceptable results when these two methods are compared, and that is the aim of this study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective study includes 798 patients operated for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in period 2012-2016. Both OA and LA were made by four surgeons in 650 and 148 patients, respectively. RESULTS: Intrahospital mortality in OA group was 0.3% (2 patients) and 0.6% in the LA group (1 patient). Early postoperative outcome was measured through the length of stay (5.1 for OA and 3.1 for LA), superficial surgical site infections-4.7% in OA versus 2.7% in LA. Postoperative intraabdominal abscess occurred in 2% (OA) and 4.05% (OA). The conversion rate was 4.7%. CONCLUSION: Open appendectomy and LA are both used as two surgical alternatives in the treatment of acute appendicitis with comparable early postoperative outcomes. Although LA is almost 100 years younger as an operative method, OA is still widely used. The choice of the procedure should be probably based on surgeon or patient preference.