Copyright
©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Apr 27, 2020; 12(4): 129-137
Published online Apr 27, 2020. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i4.129
Published online Apr 27, 2020. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i4.129
Management of complicated acute appendicitis in children: Still an existing controversy
Nick Zavras, George Vaos, Department of Paediatric Surgery, “ATTIKON” University General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens 12462, Greece
Author contributions: Zavras N designed the protocol, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Vaos G conceived the idea, wrote and revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: George Vaos, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, FEBPS, Department of Paediatric Surgery, “ATTIKON” University General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, 1 Rimini Street, Haidari, Athens 12462, Greece. gvaos@med.uoa.gr
Received: December 31, 2019
Peer-review started: December 31, 2019
First decision: February 19, 2020
Revised: March 15, 2020
Accepted: March 28, 2020
Article in press: March 28, 2020
Published online: April 27, 2020
Peer-review started: December 31, 2019
First decision: February 19, 2020
Revised: March 15, 2020
Accepted: March 28, 2020
Article in press: March 28, 2020
Published online: April 27, 2020
Core Tip
Core tip: The management of paediatric patients with complicated acute appendicitis (CAA) is controversial. There are two options for treatment: non-operative management with antibiotics and/or drainage of any abscess or phlegmon and immediate operative management. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. However, operative management is suggested for CAA with perforation, while non-operative management is advised for CAA with abscess or phlegmon. There is a paucity of high-quality studies in the current literature. Further investigations with randomized control studies are warranted.