Post-surgical outcomes of laparoscopic appendectomy observed at BIRDEM hospital

Abstract

Background and Objective: Currently, laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is widely practiced for the management of acute appendicitis (AA). The application of laparoscopic technique for appendectomy is expanding very rapidly and now performed in almost all major cities and tertiary level hospitals. This study addressed to determine the outcomes of laparoscopic appendectomy in our surgical setup at Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorder (BIRDEM).Methodology: All admitted patients at BIRDEM hospital and clinically diagnosed as acute appendicitis considered eligible for the study. Based on clinical history relevant and routine biochemical investigations were done. A board of experienced surgeons selected the eligible cases for LA. The study continued from Sept 2014 to Sept 2016.Result: A total of 47 (M / F = 21 / 26) patients with acute appendicitis were admitted during this period. The mean (SD) age was 21 (±1.4) years in male and 19 (±1.7) years in female. The mean age of the total patients was 20 (±1.6) years. Eighty percent of the patients were of age 30 years or less. Per-operative laparoscopic findings revealed that five cases (10.6%) were misdiagnosed as appendicitis. Two (4.2%) cases were found to have other pathology and necessitated open appendectomy (OA). One was suspected for malignancy and other had appendicitis with adhesion. Overall, four important post-operative outcomes were observed: (a) post-operative pain was found reducing gradually and it fell below pain score 2 or even less after 30 hours; (b) port-site bleeding and infection were observed in 4.3% and 2.1%, respectively; (c) none had visceral bleeding or subcutaneous emphysema and (d) more than 80% were discharged within 72 hours.Conclusion: Most of the patients admitted with acute appendicitis were of younger age (<30 years). Though there was no comparative group undergoing open appendectomy (OA), it was apparent that laparoscopic approach was proved to have reduced pain, less complication and shorter hospital stay thus reducing the treatment cost. Thus, LA was found relatively safe and resilient procedure. An additional benefit of laparoscopy was that it revealed about 10% case were misdiagnosed as having appendicitis. Thus, this approach may be considered as a step forward in the treatment of appendicitis making easier to explore the abdominal cavity while keeping an option to perform an OA.IMC J Med Sci 2017; 11(1): 15-18