Residual Abscesses in Acute Appendicitis. Comparison between Laparotomy Vs. Laparoscopic

Acute appendicitis is the most frequent surgical emergency with an incidence of 17 patients/1,000 inhabitants. With the advent of laparoscopy, a new mini-invasive approach emerged for the treatment of acute appendicitis. Some advantages of this approach have been demonstrated, such as less postoperative pain, smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and a rapid reintegration to daily and work activities, with a lower frequency of infections at the level of the operative wound. However, it has also been associated with an increase in the frequency of intra-abdominal residual abscesses. In this paper, we retrospectively analyzed all patients operated on at the Maciel Hospital in Montevideo, who underwent an appendectomy between June 1, 2013 and June 30, 2016, both laparoscopically and laparotomically. Of these 235 (55%) were men and 191 (45%) women. The average age was 32.6 in a range from 15 years to 96 years of age. 128 patients presented edematous appendicitis (30%), 157 phlegmonous appendicitis (36.9%), 76 patients gangrenous appendicitis (17.8%), 37 patients presented abscess or plastron (8.7%), and peritonitis had developed in 28 patients (6.6%). Regarding the approach, 287 were performed laparoscopically (67.4%) and 139 were approached via laparotomy (32.6%). The residual abscesses rate represents 3.28% of the series, with no significant differences in incidence between the two different approaches. The vast majority of these residual abscesses can be treated with antibiotic therapy alone. The conversion rate was 8.7%. No intestinal lesions were observed with the laparoscopic approach in this series.