Challenging tradition: Can appendicitis be treated solely with medication?

For 130 years, surgery has been the standard treatment for appendicitis — inflammation of the appendix, a short tube extending from the colon.After all, it ’s best to remove an infected body part that is not essential to survival rather than risk a rupture that spews bacteria into the abdomen. Right? Maybe not.UCLADr. David TalanDr. David Talan, professor in the department of emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is helping to lead a $12-millionclinical trial to determine whether treating appendicitis solely with antibiotics can be a safe, effective and less expensive alternative to surgery.  Talan, who also holds an appointment in the department of medicine ’s division of infectious diseases, recently addressed questions about this alternative approach to treating appendicitis.Why are you looking into this subject?About one in 10 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with an appendicitis in their lifetime, so it ’s very common. Over time, the medical community has become almost exclusively reliant on surgery to address appendicitis — an operation called an appendectomy. Today, surgeons perform something like 300,000 appendectomies in the U.S. each year, and it’s considered the most common emergency su rgery.Traditional medical approaches are constantly being re-evaluated to determine their value to society. Extensive data from a large-scale study will help patients and their physicians make more informed health care decisions.You seem...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news