Deaths in children with acute appendicitis

Two hundred and four children died of acute appendicitis in England and Wales in the five-year period 1963-7. The mortality rate in children less than 5 years old was eight times higher than that in those aged 5-14. It is suggested that diagnosis, intravenous therapy, treatment of convulsions and hyperpyrexia, and anaesthesia are fields where there is room for improvement in management. Moreover, there is a place for the wider use of national medical audits on the lines of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths.