New Ways in the Surgery of Acute Appendicitis?

Acute appendicitis is still one of the most common abdominal emergencies necessitating operative treatment. For the past century, the conventional management of appendicitis has been open appendectomy. Since the introduction of laparoscopic appendectomy, it has been performed with increased frequency. Clinical trials evaluating outcomes comparing open appendectomy with laparoscopic appendectomy indicate that laparoscopic appendectomy is associated with lower complication rate and lower mortality and is to be considered the procedure of choice for patients with suspected acute appendicitis. Ever since Kalloo's first report on transgastric peritoneoscopy in a porcine model in 2004, this dramatic surgical revolution has prompted many surgeons and endoscopists to study this new technique. This complex technique involves breaching the wall of a hollow organ to gain access into the peritoneum: Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). In recent years, several NOTES experiments have been carried out in animal models and even on humans, including appendectomy. NOTES may help to reduce surgical pain and shorten recovery time. The concept of NOTES has generated intensive interest in the medical community as well as in the group of patients. Although the novel procedure is still far from being mature and many technical problems have to be overcome and more clinical studies have to be done before its widespread application in human appendectomy, NOTES is a promising procedure for the future.