Feasibility of outpatient appendectomy

Editor's Note

Outpatient surgery for uncomplicated acute appendicitis is feasible, this study finds.

A total of 240 patients were divided into intention-to-treat and per protocol (ie, no preoperative exclusion criteria) groups. There was also a subgroup of patients who were discharged to home the day before surgery.

The success rate of outpatient surgery was 31.5% in the intention to treat patients and 91.5% in the per protocol patients. The rates of unplanned consultations, hospitalizations, and reoperations were 13%, 4%, and 1%, respectively.

Analysis of reasons for excluding patients from outpatient surgery showed that 73% could have been modified. The patients discharged to home the day before surgery had an outpatient surgery success rate of 91%.

The analysis shows that it should be possible to dramatically increase the number of patients eligible for outpatient appendectomy, the authors say.

Day case surgery (DCS) for uncomplicated acute appendicitis (NCAA) is under evaluation. The objective of this prospective, single-center, descriptive, non-randomized, intention-to-treat (ITT) cohort study was to assess the feasibility of DCS for NCAA with a critical analysis of the reasons for exclusion and treatment failures and a focus on patients discharged to home and admitted for DCS on the following day.