[Open versus laparoscopic appendectomy for acute appendicitis in children]

Acute appendicitis is a common disease affecting both adults and children. The basic therapeutic procedure is an appendectomy. Open appendectomy has been gradually supplemented and sometimes replaced by a laparoscopic approach in numerous departments. The aim of our work was to compare laparoscopic and open surgery objectively.

Retrospective analysis of data from patients operated on at the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology, Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové in 20092016. Only the precisely evaluated parameters, i.e. the time of anesthesia, the time of surgery and the duration of post-operative pain, were assessed within the scope of objectification. Data were evaluated only in a homogeneous group of patients with phlegmonous appendicitis.

During the above period, 261 patients with acute appendicitis were operated on at our department, 166 of whom suffered from phlegmonous appendicitis. 133 children were operated laparoscopically and 33 by open procedure. The results obtained were statistically significantly different only for the time of anesthesia (p=0.00035) which was shorter in open operations. The time of surgery was also shorter in the open operation group, but only at the limit of statistical significance. A statistically significant difference was not found in the time of duration of pain for individual surgical approaches.

Laparoscopic approach in the surgical treatment of acute appendicitis is a more modern method than open surgery and it has become a standard procedure in some departments. However, the results of our study confirm that the open approach remains an equivalent alternative to the treatment of acute phlegmonous appendicitis.Key words: appendicitis open appendectomy laparoscopy.