Appendix mass: conservative management without interval appendectomy

Forty-nine patients had conservative treatment of an appendix mass without interval appendectomy. Five were lost to follow-up within 6 months, and 44 patients were followed for between 6 months and 22 years. In nine patients (20 percent) recurrent appendicitis developed, and six (14 percent) suffered chronic pain not thought to be due to appendicitis. Of the recurrences, 66 percent occurred within 2 years of the initial attack. Barium examination of the cecum was successful in diagnosing two of three additional patients in whom a right iliac fossa mass was not due to appendicitis. The morbidity and expense of routine interval appendectomy was thus eliminated in 80 percent of the patients.