Case series: Treatment outcome of late presentation of acute appendicitis

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Late presentation of Acute Appendicitis (AA) is associated with a high risk of perforation-related complications and morbidity. Even though AA is a well-known disease, late presented AA is not uncommon. This study aims to report the treatment outcome of several cases of late presented AA, treated at a government public hospital at Mojokerto, a small town in East Java, Indonesia, where no previous report were known. CASE PRESENTATION: Eleven patients experienced surgical removal of the appendix during one year period (January 2021 until December 2021). Those patients are treated by one surgeon at Dr. Wahidin Sudiro Husodo Kota Mojokerto Hospital. Furthermore, they were divided into 3 groups, (A: presented within 2 days after onset of abdominal pain; B: presented within 2–5 days after onset of abdominal pain; C: presented more than 5 days after onset of abdominal pain). The morbidities for all patients were studied, which they all followed up until the surgery wound healed completely. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: The perforation of the appendix occurred in 7 patients consisting of 2 in Group A, 2 in Group B, and 3 in Group C. Furthermore, the two patients who experienced extension of surgical resection were all from Group C and this group has 10.67 days of highest Length of Stay (LOS). The two patients with perforated AA, 1 from group A and 1 from group C, developed surgical site infection. The main reason for the late presentation of AA was non-operative treatment due to equivocal clinical findings. CONCLUSION: The late presentation of AA causes perforation-associated morbidities, including a possible extension of surgical resection, long hospitalization period, and surgical site infection. Some late presented AA does not develop into perforation since perforated and non-perforated AA may represents two different entities.