Results of emergency appendectomy for appendicular mass.

ABSTRACT

Emergency appendectomy was done on 1142 patients during the period of July 1990 to January 2003 to evaluate the results. Of which 656(57.44%) were male and 496(42.56%) were female. The mean age was 22.21+/-3.93 years (04-85 years). The duration of pain before admission was 3.05+/-0.94 days (01-17 days) and 708(62%) patients presented with palpable mass; ultrasonogram revealed additional lump in 114(9.98%) patients, rest of the lump (28.02%) was detected during operation. 342(30%) patients had appendix abscess and 228(19.96%) had loculated collection. Eight patients had tuberculosis and four had carcinoma in addition. All had appendicitis except two of which one patient had carcinoid tumor and one had enteric fever perforation. Operative time ranged from 15-85 minutes (29.38+/-3.19 minutes). The average hospital stay was 4.22+/-0.82 days (03-17 days). There was no failure, faecal fistula or death. The overall wound related complication was 22.86% of which 14.62% was very minor and overall intra abdominal complication was 4.12%. Persistent wound pain was in 43(3.87%) and hypertrophied scar was found in 05 (0.45%) patients. 05(0.45%) patients needed exploration for persistent sinus one of which was tuberculosis and remaining was due to suture material. Remote complications like RTI, UTI, and DVT was found in 04(0.35%) patients. There was no death, no faecal fistula and no failure. It seems that emergency appendectomy could safely be done in appendix mass without any increased risk of mortality and morbidity.