Does time to antibiotic initiation and surgery have an impact on acute appendicitis results?

Time to treatment initiation is a key element to be considered in infectious pathologies such as acute appendicitis (AA). There are few articles in the literature analyzing the relationship between early pre-surgical antibiotic treatment initiation and complication occurrence in AA. Our objective is to analyze such influence and the effects of late treatment initiation.

A retrospective, observational study was carried out in children undergoing surgery for AA between 2017 and 2018. Demographic variables, time to antibiotic treatment initiation, time to surgery, and postoperative complications were analyzed.

592 patients with a median 12-month follow-up were included in the study. Antibiotic treatment initiation in the first 8 hours following diagnosis prevents complications [OR 0.24 (95% CI: 0.07-0.80)] and dramatically reduces the occurrence of intra-abdominal abscess from 25.0% to 5.5% (p=0.03). Antibiotic treatment initiation in the first 4 hours following diagnosis significantly reduced wound infection rate in non-overweight patients [2.9% vs. 13.6%; OR 0.19 (95% CI: 0.045-0.793); p=0.042]. Surgery within the first 24 hours following diagnosis reduced the proportion of advanced AA (gangrenous appendicitis and peritonitis) from 100% to 38.6% (p=0.023).

Antibiotic treatment initiation in the first 4 hours following AA prevented the occurrence of post-surgical complications, especially in non-overweight patients. An adequate clinical approach and an early assessment by the pediatric surgeon are key to reduce the morbidity associated with AA.