Non-surgical treatment of appendicitis shown to be effective

Finnish researchers report on the five-year study on options for the treatment of acute forms of appendicitis using appendectomies (appendix removal) and antibiotics, says the effectiveness of the latter method. The research results published journal JAMA. Observations showed that of the 256 people who were treated with antibiotics, more than half did not need surgery in the next 5 years.

The assumption that the use of antibiotics may be sufficient for the treatment of uncomplicated acute appendicitis conclusions and in the earlier studies. Observations have shown that in the absence of perforation (rupture) of the appendix antibiotics can significantly improve the patient's condition. However, all attempts clinical trials had limitations - insufficient, small sample.

Collect more data decided a team of scientists from the University of Turku (Finland). Scientists have conducted a random sample of 530 patients with acute appendicitis aged 18 to 60 years and divided them into two groups. One group of participants, consisting of 273 people, took place standard procedures remove the appendix. The second group of 257 people for three days were injected intravenously with ertapenem. Thereafter, patients for a week taking levofloxacin and metronidazole.

After the participants in the study were treated and the course of antibiotics, the researchers followed them for a further five years. The researchers wanted to find out what number of repeated cases of inflammation and complications after treatment with antibiotics will be observed in patients. At the end of the study, the researchers concluded, among those who had been treated with antibiotics, 70 people in the first year after completion of treatment and another 30 within the next five years of observations needed surgery. At 24, 4 percent of people after appendectomy and 6, 5 percent after antibiotic treatment during the observation period, there were some complications (abdominal pain, inflammation and herniation the surgical site). At the same time, the researchers noted that the period of recovery after antibiotic treatment in humans was an average of 11 days faster than those who took an appendectomy procedure. According to the researchers, their findings show the high potential of the non-surgical method of treatment of appendicitis. At the same time, scientists have noted that all cases of inflammation studied in this paper appendicitis were not extreme form, in which sometimes require immediate surgical intervention for the patient's survival.

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