[Acute appendicitis. Surgical and non-surgical treatment]

Appendicitis represents a common disease for the surgeon with a relative risk between 7-8%. It was thought that if more time passed between diagnosis and treatment, the risk for complications, such as perforation or abscess formation, was higher; nevertheless; the evolution is variable, making necessary the development of different strategies such as antibiotic use only, interval surgery or endoscopic treatment. The purpose of this study is to make a revision in the management of appendicitis comparing conservative and surgical treatment. It is known that traditional management of appendicitis is appendectomy with a complication rate of 2.5% to 48%. Nowadays, laparoscopy is the approach of choice by many surgeons and there have proposed new invasive techniques such as endoscopic treatment with the use of prosthesis and ambulatory surgery. Antibiotic use is essential in the management of appendicitis. Its use as the only strategy to treat this disease has the purpose of lowering costs and diminishing complications related to surgery or the resection of the organ. We conclude that the ideal management of appendicitis remains controversial and it will depend of the clinical characteristics of each patient and the resources available.