Laparoscopic appendicectomy benefits patients and practitioners equally in non-specialist centres

Introduction: This prospective comparative study was undertaken to assess its impact on the hospital service where, prior to this, open appendicectomy (OP) was conventional.

Patients and methods: Over a period of 12 months (July 2001-August 2002) a total of 113 patients were operated by different surgeons. Fifty-three patients underwent laparoscopic appendicectomy. 60 patients had open procedure.

Results: Within the laparoscopic group, average length of stay was 3.03 (2–5) days, compared with 4.01 (2–12) days of open appendicectomy. There were no wound complications in laparoscopic group. In the open group there were three laparotomies due to uncertain diagnosis, one operative site haematoma and one secondary peritonitis after open appendicectomy which necessitated a laparotomy. Nine of these cases also required adjunctive imaging for diagnostic purposes.

Conclusions: Patients benefit with its low morbidity, shorter hospital stay, reasonable operating time and quicker recovery. This practice also inspired the practitioners of low experience to take on this procedure with confidence as this technique has very low morbidity. This technique also helped junior surgeons to improve their laparoscopic skills which potentially could be utilized for advanced laparoscopic procedures.