Comparison of Appendicitis Between Children and Adults.
- Author:
Choon Hyuck KWON
1
;
Dae Yeon KIM
;
Ki Hong KIM
;
Sung Eung JUNG
;
Kwi Won PARK
;
Woo Ki KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Appendicitis;
Children;
Adults
- MeSH:
Abdominal Pain;
Adult*;
Appendectomy;
Appendicitis*;
Child*;
Diagnosis;
Emergencies;
Humans;
Length of Stay;
Retrospective Studies
- From:Journal of the Korean Surgical Society
1999;57(3):436-440
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Appendicitis is one of the most common causes of abdominal emergency with a life time risk of 6-8%. Children are unable to give an accurate history, and since acute nonspecific abdominal pain is more common than appendicitis at this age, diagnosis and management of appendicitis are often delayed. This results in more frequent complications and difficult management. In order to evaluate whether pediatric appendicitis should be thought as more urgent and serious because of the delay in its diagnosis, we compared the clinical characteristics and outcomes of appendicitis in children with those of adults. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 106 adults and 43 children who were pathologically verified with appendicitis after an appendectomy. RESULTS: There was no difference in the duration of symptoms. Advanced appendicitis was more frequent in children (60.5% vs. 53.7%). In children, the symptom durations of advanced appendicitis were similar to those that of early appendicitis, but were significantly longer in adults. Children showed no increase in cumulative rate of advanced appendicitis in relation with prolonged symptom duration whereas adults showed a steady increase after 72 hours of onset. The complication rate was higher in advanced cases in both, but children had a lower complication rate than adults. The postoperative hospital stay was significantly longer in advanced cases in both, but children had a relatively shorter hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric appendicitis was more prone to early perforation with a relatively higher perforation rate. However, children had a lower morbidity rate and a shorter admission stay. Therefore, appendicitis in children is not necessarily more serious and urgent than in adults.
