Surgery for Appendicitis: Where Do We Go? Rational Imaging and Surgical Approach

Excerpt

We read the manuscript of Dr. Sugiura et al. with interest [1]. The authors compare historical cohorts of patients treated for acute appendicitis (AA) at the Japanese Red Cross Nagoya First Hospital in two periods, 2006–2011 and 2012–2017, respectively. The trends observed with regard to imaging modalities and treatment used indicate that, although AA is common entity, the surgical community is not uniform in standardization of diagnostic and treatment approaches [2]. The authors conclude that during a 12-year period, the mean age of patients with AA and the incidences of complicated appendicitis and appendiceal diverticulitis increased, whereas the negative appendectomy rate decreased. They advocate such trends may be associated primarily with population aging and secondarily with a higher rate of abdominal computer tomography (CT) imaging in latter period, 94.7% versus 85.1%, respectively. …