DOI: 10.21276/sasjs.2018.4.12.7

Pages: 324-327

Introduction: Appendectomy is the most common surgical procedure performed in emergency surgery. Because of lack of consensus about the most appropriate technique, appendectomy is still being performed by both open (OA) and laparoscopic (LA) methods. Material and Methods: This is prospective, comparative, single centre and descriptive study conducted in the Department of General Surgery, a tertiary care teaching hospital among 60 patients over a period of 6 months. Patients with appendicitis were included in the study. The diagnosis of appendicitis was made on the following criteria: History of right lower quadrant pain or periumbilical pain migrating to the right lower quadrant with nausea and/or vomiting, fever of more than 38°C and/or leukocytosis above 10,000 cells per mL, right lower quadrant guarding, and tenderness on physical examination. Results: Maximum number of patients were male 38 (63.3%) and female 22 (36.6%) in Laparoscopic appendectomy. In Open appendectomy group, maximum number of patients were male 39 (65.0%) and female 21 (35.0%) in Laparoscopic appendectomy. Duration of the operation time ranged from 31-94 min in Laparoscopic appendectomy (Mean±SD 49.4±4.2) and 25 to 62 min (Mean±SD: 29.3±3.9) in Open appendectomy. Mean duration of post-operative pain was 21.01±3.9 hours in Laparoscopic appendectomy and 29.34±3.64 hours in Open appendectomy (p<0.001). The mean duration of hospital was 1.98±0.09 days in Laparoscopic appendectomy and 6.01±1.86 days in Open appendectomy (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results showed the advantages of the laparoscopic approach over open appendectomy including shorter hospital stay, decreased need for postoperative analgesia, earlier return to work, lower rate of wound infection, against only marginally higher hospital costs. In the future, laparoscopic appendectomy could represent the standard treatment for patients with appendicitis and undiagnosed abdominal pain.