Copyright
©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Nov 27, 2021; 13(11): 1436-1447
Published online Nov 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i11.1436
Published online Nov 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i11.1436
Patients with Clostridium difficile infection and prior appendectomy may be prone to worse outcomes
Danial Haris Shaikh, Harish Patel, Haozhe Sun, Shehriyar Mehershahi, Ahmed Baiomi, Ahmed Alemam, Siddarth Hanumanthu, Suresh Nayudu, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY 10457, United States
Rezwan Munshi, Department of Medicine, Nassau University Medical Center, New York, NY 11554, United States
Usman Pirzada, Iqra Nawaz, Kamrun Naher, Department of Medicine, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY 10457, United States
Author contributions: Shaikh DH and Patel H contributed planned, designed, conducted and analyzed the result of the study as well as drafted the manuscript; Munshi R, Sun H, Mehershahi S, Baiomi A, Alemam A and Pirzada U contributed acquired the data for the study and were involved in the critical revision of the manuscript; Nawaz I and Naher K contributed acquired the data for the study and were involved in the critical revision of the manuscript; Hanumanthu S acquired the data for the study and was involved in the critical revision of the manuscript; Nayudu S contributed supervised the design and conduct of the study as well as provided interpretation of the study results; Nayudu S was also involved in drafting, critical revision; all authors are involved in the final review and approval of the manuscript for submission.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institution Review Board at BronxCare Health System and was performed as per the Declaration of Helsinki (IRB No. 12131804).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous data, that was obtained after each patient had agreed to the hospital evaluation and treatment via written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: Danial Haris Shaikh, MD, Doctor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, BronxCare Health System, 1650 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10457, United States. dshaikh@bronxcare.org
Received: July 18, 2021
Peer-review started: July 18, 2021
First decision: August 15, 2021
Revised: August 29, 2021
Accepted: September 15, 2021
Article in press: September 15, 2021
Published online: November 27, 2021
Peer-review started: July 18, 2021
First decision: August 15, 2021
Revised: August 29, 2021
Accepted: September 15, 2021
Article in press: September 15, 2021
Published online: November 27, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection occurs due to a dysbiosis of the gut. The appendix is known to host immune tissue and favorable gut microbiota, which may indirectly influence the disease course and outcomes in C. difficile infection. We found that prior appendectomy may affect the severity of C. difficile infection, and it may also increase the risk of developing toxic megacolon or requiring colectomy in these patients. Thus, earlier implementation of advanced therapeutic options may be necessary in patients without an appendix who develop C. difficile infection.