Wound sepsis after cholecystectomy: effect of incidental appendicectomy

The records of a consecutive series of 224 patients were analysed to discover the effect of incidental appendicectomy on the wound sepsis rate after cholecystectomy. One hundred and five patients had had a cholecystectomy alone and 119 cholecystectomy with incidental appendicectomy. The incidence of wound sepsis in patients not given adequate antibiotic prophylaxis was significantly lower (16-1%) when cholecystectomy alone was carried out than when the appendix was removed as well (41-1%).