[Complications of acute appendicitis in children]

Among 976 children with acute appendicitis 966 were operated upon, 169 of them (17.4%)-for common appendicitis, 401 (41.2%)-for phlegmonous appendicitis, 396 (40.4%)-for gangrenous appendicitis; 10 children were subjected to surgery due to the presence of appendicular infiltration. Preoperatively, in 137 (13.7%) patients peritonitis was observed: local-in 90, diffuse and progressive-in 47. There was noted a dependence of complications on the terms of the disease and patients' stay at the hospital prior to surgery. Following the operation in 98 (10.1%) patients different complications were observed: the postoperative wound suppuration (61), inflammatory processes in the abdomen (infiltrations, abscesses-in 33), intestinal obstruction (2), intra-abdominal hemorrhage (1), enteric fistula (1). There were no lethal issues. The preoperative complications were conditioned by gravity and advanced forms of the principal lesion, technical drawbacks in operation and treatment of purulent peritonitis.