[Conservative or early surgical management of appendiceal mass. Does it affect the appearance of complications?]

Currently the management of appendicular mass remains controversial. Many authors advocate conservative management followed by delayed appendectomy, whereas others favour inmediate appendectomy. The aim of our study is to compare both treatments.

A descriptive and observational study over 46 patients treated for appendiceal mass at our center in the last ten years was performed. Patients were categorized as group 1, early surgical intervention (54.3%) and group 2, conservative management and interval appendectomy (45.7%), with a mean interval of 5.3 ± 1.5 months.

Mean age was 9.2 ± 3.8 years in group 1 and 3.7 ± 3 years in group 2 (p<0.001). Median delay between the first symptoms and diagnosis was 4 ± 2.2 days in group 1 and 7.9 ± 4.2 days in group 2 (p<0.001). Antibiotics were administered before diagnosis in 24% of patients in group 1 and 42.9% in group 2 (p = 0.297). Ultrasound was performed in all patients, while 19.6% of patients requiered TAC for definitive diagnosis. Median hospital stay was 7.9 ± 2.9 days in group 1 and 8.3 ± 2.2 days in group 2 (p = 0.441). Complicactions were found in 64% of patients (group 1) and 23% of patients (group 2) (p = 0.015). Three patients from group 2 requiered readmission because of recurrent abdominal pain, but just one requiered early surgery.

Conservative management of appendicular mass has a lower complication rate compared to the initial surgical management.