[Meta-analysis of laparoscopic surgery versus conservative treatment for appendiceal abscess]

To systematically evaluate the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic surgery versus conservative treatment for appendiceal abscess.

The databases of CNKI, Wangfang, VIP, PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library were searched to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCT) or clinical controlled trials (CCT) comparing laparoscopic surgery with conservative treatment for appendiceal abscess published before June 2018. The search terms were Chinese or English. Chinese search terms included appendix, abscess, and laparoscopy; English search terms included appendix, abscess, and laparoscope. References of the resulted papers, related reviews or meta-analysis references were also induded. Literature inclusion criteria: (1)RCT or CCT, whether or not to assign concealment or blinding; (2) appendiceal abscess was diagnosed at admission; (3) laparoscopic group: laparoscopic appendectomy or laparoscopy surgical methods, such as irrigation and drainage, for appendiceal abscess; conservative treatment group: conservative methods, such as antibiotics or percutaneous abscess drainage were used to treat appendiceal abscess.

(1) review, case report, single cohort study and other non-controlled studies literature; (2) single study sample size ≤ 20; (3) subjects with simple appendicitis or perforation of appendix to form diffuse peritonitis; (4) no valid data available for extraction; (5) repeated publication of the literature. Data were extracted from the included studies, and the Cochrane Collaboration RevMan 5.1.0 version software was used for this meta-analysis.

Three RCTs and four CCTs with a total of 591 patients were included in this study. There were 312 patients in the laparoscopic group and 279 patients in the conservative group. Compared with the conservative group, the laparoscopic group had higher uneventful recovery rate (OR=11.91, 95%CI: 4.59 to 30.88, P<0.05), shorter hospital stay (WMD=-2.98, 95%CI: -5.96 to -0.01, P=0.05), lower incidence of recurrent or residual abscess (OR=0.07, 95%CI:0.03 to 0.20, P<0.05), and shorter time to recover to normal condition for body temperature and white blood cell respectively (SMD=-2.12, 95%CI:-2.49 to -1.75, P<0.05; SMD=-2.07, 95%CI: -3.84 to -0.29, P<0.05). However, no significant difference was found in hospital charge(P>0.05).

Laparoscopic surgery for appendiceal abscess is safe and feasible. It can improve the recovery with shorter postoperative hospital stay and less recurrent or residual abscess.