RESUMO
A prospective study was conducted in 90 patients divided in two different groups: the first group included 45 labor patients operated of cesarean section and elective appendectomy, the second group included 45 labor patients operated of cesarean section without appendectomy (control group). The purpose was to evaluate if the elective removal of the appendix increase the postoperative morbidity. The most common indication of cesarean section was the mother-fetus disproportion (55.5%). The main type of uterine incision was the segmental transverse (over 90% of the cases). Appendectomy added 11.2 minutes to the operation time, as compared with the control group (p less than 0.01). There were 4 cases (8.8%) of decidual infection in the appendectomy group and 2 cases (4.4%) of decidual infection (one of these complicated with wound dehiscence) in the control group. Nevertheless there was not difference statistically significative in comparing the morbidity between the groups (p = 0.33). There were no complications directly attributable to elective appendectomy. It is concluded that the elective appendectomy does not increase the postoperative morbidity in labor patients undergoing cesarean section and it requires a good selection of patients to be appendectomized.