Does Ochsner-Sherren regimen still hold true in the management of appendicular mass?

Although proposed as far back as 1901, conservative management for appendicular mass is still widely practiced. With a few recent series outlining the advantages of early appendicectomy for appendicular mass, we tried to investigate the feasibility of such an approach in this retrospective study.

We analyzed retrospectively 506 patients (240 male, 266 female) who underwent emergency appendicectomy for suspected appendicitis and appendicular mass between January 2005 and December 2007. Patients with sub-acute/chronic appendicitis and interval appendicectomy were excluded. The postoperative outcomes were compared between the two groups of patients classified as with or without the mass.

A total of 506 patients were included in the study, of which 114 had appendicular mass. A comparison of the two groups demonstrated no major complications in either group. There was significantly increased incidence of minor complications in the group of patients with mass, although the incidence of wound infection showed no significance difference between the two groups. There was a significantly increased usage of drain/duration of stay in patients with mass.

Low morbidity, reduced hospital stay, low cost, and patient compliance favor early operative management for appendicular mass, and it also avoids the possibility of missing entities like intestinal/peritoneal tuberculosis, which have similar presentations and are especially common in a country like India.