By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) — Although some researchers believe antibiotics can often cure appendicitis, surgery remains the more effective treatment, French investigators suggest.
Uncomplicated appendicitis may be treated with antibiotics alone, but complicated appendicitis, where the appendix is perforated, requires surgery, and it is difficult to discern between the two, the researchers say.
TUESDAY, Sept. 21 (HealthDay News) — A delay of 12 or more hours before removing the appendix of patients with acute appendicitis does not lead to poorer outcomes, a new study shows.
U.S. researchers analyzed national data from 32,782 patients with acute appendicitis who underwent an appendectomy between 2005 and 2008. Of those patients, 75.2 percent had surgery within six hours of being admitted to the hospital, 15.1 percent had surgery within six to 12 hours, and 9.8 percent had surgery after more than 12 hours.
MONDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) — Air pollution is already linked to respiratory and cardiovascular ills, and now researchers say the dirty air you breathe may also cause appendicitis.
Authors of a new study published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that cases of appendicitis go up when the air is dirtier.
“This makes us think about the underlying cause of appendicitis that could potentially be linked to air pollution,” said Dr. Gilaad G. Kaplan, senior author of the study and assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at the University of Calgary in Alberta. “Air pollution is a modifiable risk factor. If these findings are confirmed and we are able to legislate better air pollution control, cleaner air, then potentially we could prevent more cases of appendicitis.” Read More
Surgery on wrong patient or site—and other big blunders
Procedures done on the wrong body part and to the wrong person are two of the National Quality Forum’s 28 “never events,” mistakes—including surgical materials left in a patient; artificial insemination with the wrong sperm or egg; and harm from malfunctioning equipment, as happened to Kristina Fox—that shouldn’t occur under any circumstances (see “Mistakes That Should Never Happen”). But they do. Out of 4,817 serious problems tracked over the past 12 years by the Joint Commission, the chief accrediting organization for hospitals, 625 were wrong-site surgeries. These are the nightmares: A Long Island, N.Y., woman in her 30s who never had cancer received an unnecessary double mastectomy—then died the following day of complications from the procedure. A man in a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital had his healthy kidney removed—instead of his cancerous one. Read More
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