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Acute Appendicitis in the Elderly in the Twenty-First Century

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery Aims and scope

Abstract

Background

The incidence of appendicitis in the elderly has risen. Older age is an independent predictor of poor surgical outcome. Herein, we present the most comprehensive single institution study to describe the natural history and outcome of appendicitis in elderly patients.

Methods

A review of 1898 consecutive patients who underwent appendectomy between 2004 and 2007 was performed. The elderly patients were defined as older than 68 years.

Results

The median age of the entire cohort was 25 years, and 55 % were males. The elderly group included 68 patients (3.6 %). On comparison by age, the elderly group had a significantly longer delay from symptom onset to admission (50 vs 31 h, P = 0.01) and from admission to surgery, a longer operative time and hospital stay, and higher rates of postoperative complications and complicated appendicitis.

Conclusion

The current study demonstrated several unique characteristics of the elderly population with acute appendicitis, which include poor outcome and longer time intervals to diagnosis and treatment. In order to improve the poor outcome of the elderly population with appendicitis, prospective trials are necessary.

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Conflict of Interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interests regarding this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel

    Lior Segev & Shlomi Rayman

  2. Department of Suregry, Rabin Medical Center, Petach-Tikva, 49100, Israel

    Andrei Keidar, Ilan Schrier, Nir Wasserberg & Eran Sadot

  3. Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Lior Segev, Andrei Keidar, Ilan Schrier, Shlomi Rayman, Nir Wasserberg & Eran Sadot

Authors
  1. Lior Segev
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  2. Andrei Keidar
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  3. Ilan Schrier
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  4. Shlomi Rayman
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  5. Nir Wasserberg
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  6. Eran Sadot
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Correspondence to Eran Sadot.

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Segev, L., Keidar, A., Schrier, I. et al. Acute Appendicitis in the Elderly in the Twenty-First Century. J Gastrointest Surg 19, 730–735 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-014-2716-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-014-2716-9

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