Studying complications of acute appendicitis among children under 14 years old

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of appendicitis and subsequent complications among children under 14 years of age in Tabriz Children's Hospital. Methodsand Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Tabriz Pediatric Hospital during 2016. All children under the age of 14 and were diagnosed with appendicitis in this educational center were included in the study during one year. All demographic, laboratory, sonographic, surgical data and its complications were extracted from the patients' records by extracting them using questionnaires. Then the incidence of complications before, during or after the operation will be calculated based on the data extracted from the records. Results: Of 864 patients diagnosed with appendicitis, 781 (90.39 percent) were diagnosed with appendicitis. Of the 781 patients with definite diagnosis of appendicitis, 184 (23.6 percent) patients had complications before surgery and 49 (6.3 percent) had postoperative complications. Preoperative complications of perforation (20.1 percent) and abscess (3.45 percent) were the most common complications. Low age (P <0.001), leukocytosis (P = 0.006), left shift (P = 0.01), high platelet (P = 0.005), low hemoglobin (P <0.001) and longer hospitalization period (P <0.001) were statistically significant associated with complications.