Background: Conservative management of advanced complicated appendicitis in children is becoming
more common. Formation of an appendiceal mass or abscess may mitigate against urgent
appendectomy during the acute stage, and conservative treatment followed by interval appendectomy
has been advocated. We present our experience of interval laparoscopic appendectomy in our
institution.
Materials and Methods: All children who were offered interval laparoscopic appendectomy between
January 2000 and December 2004 were included. Retrospective case note analysis was performed
and data collected included demographics, duration of symptoms, method of diagnosis, days
of antibiotics, length of interval, operative time, length of hospital stay (conservative treatment and
interval laparoscopic appendectomy), analgesia requirements, complications, and histology.
Results: Thirty-six children, median age 8 years (range, 1–15 years) diagnosed with appendiceal
mass or abscess were offered interval laparoscopic appendectomy by two surgeons in our institution:
one patient declined interval laparoscopic appendectomy. Median antibiotic treatment was 10 days
(range, 3–23 days). Median length of stay for conservative treatment was 6 days (range, 1–27 days).
Five children required percutaneous drainage. For the 35 children who had interval laparoscopic appendectomy,
the median interval was 93 days (range, 34–156 days) and median operative time was 55
minutes (range, 25–120 minutes). Median length of stay for interval laparoscopic appendectomy was
1 day (range, 1–3 days). There were no complications following interval laparoscopic appendectomy.
Conclusion: Interval laparoscopic appendectomy can be safely performed in children, is associated
with a short hospital stay and minimal morbidity, analgesia, and scarring following conservative management
of appendiceal mass or abscess. Interval laparoscopic appendectomy eliminates the risk of
recurrent appendicitis and serves to excise undiagnosed carcinoid tumors. In future it may be possible
to perform interval laparoscopic appendectomy as a day-case procedure in selected patients.
