Treatment historically for appendicitis has remained surgery, but a new study has unveiled antibiotics can be as good as surgery and may be even better than it in many cases among children. Children who were treated with antibiotics rather than surgery in which appendix is removed produced slightly better outcomes.
Researchers said that in around 75% of the cases in which children having appendicitis were treated with antibiotics rather than surgery, it was found a year later, that they recovered and didn’t require surgery to remove their appendix, reports wtexas.com.
Around 95% of the cases of the children treated with antibiotics and not surgery had shown significant improvement within 24 hours. In fact, the healthcare bill was smaller for those who chose surgery.
Dr. Peter Minneci of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said they had screened 629 patients aged between 7 and 17 who visited the emergency room between October 2012 and March 2013 with appendicitis.
Among them, they enrolled 102 children with appendix. Of those, 37 families chose to go with at least 24 hours of intravenous antibiotics and then 10 days course of antibiotics and the remaining elected surgery.
After a year, around 76% of children who were taking antibiotics did not require antibiotics. In fact, these children in comparison to those who underwent surgery required less number of days for rest and their medical bill was an average of $800 lower.
Surgery known as appendectomy means surgical removal of appendix, so there is no chance of its return, but sometimes, it can lead to complications. Cost is another negative factor associated with surgery.
Researchers conclude that antibiotics in at least simple cases of appendicitis in which the appendix has not ruptured and patients have faced pain for less than two days are a more effective treatment than surgery. But more research is needed in the field.
