Publication:

Laparoscopic verses open appendicectomy

Background Most commonly performed abdominal surgery is appendicectomy open appendectomy (OA) was introduced by Mc-burney in 1884 still it is the operation of choice in acute appendicitis. Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) though widely practiced, has not gained universal approval. LA was first described in 1983. Recent studies showed overall benefit in favour of LA. This study is done to view the therapeutic benefit of LA by comparing with conventional OA.

Methods It is a prospective study in 103 patients who underwent appendicectomy in KBN medical college hospital from 15th January 2015 to 15th August 2015. Out of them 60 had conventional OA and 43 had LA. We compared the mean operation time, time of adequate oral feeding, analgesic requirement, and duration of post-operative hospital stay.

Results We found that mean operation time was 33±5.8 minute for open appendicectomy and 47± 7.5 minute for laparoscopic appendicectomy. Duration of post-operative hospital stay was 1.2 days shorter in Laparoscopic group. LA required 1.1 shots of less analgesic than OA. Oral feeding was resumed 21 hours earlier following LA compared to OA. We also found that, in female patient, concurrent ovarian cysts, tubal pregnancy can be diagnosed and managed laparoscopically in the same sitting.

Conclusions Our study found that laparoscopic appendectomy is an effective and safe procedure irrespective sex of the patient. LA has added advantage of early return of bowel movement, less post-op hospital stay and less requirement of analgesic.