Association of Delay in Appendectomy With Perforation in Children With Appendicitis

Objective The aim of this study was to assess whether increased time from emergency department (ED) triage to appendectomy is associated with a greater risk of children developing appendiceal perforation. Methods We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of children younger than 18 years hospitalized with appendicitis. To avoid enrolling patients who had perforated prior to ED arrival, we included only children who had a computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrating nonperforated appendicitis. Time to appendectomy was measured as time from ED triage to incision. The main outcome was appendiceal perforation as documented in the surgical report. Variables associated with perforation in bivariate analysis (P
Source: Pediatric Emergency Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research