A clinical study of post-operative complications of emergency and elective (open and laparoscopic) appendicectomy

Background: Post-operative complications which follows appendicectomy are not common and it reflect the level of peritonitis that is present during the time of surgery and the diseases which may be predisposed to complications. There are various types of complications that occurred after the appendicectomy surgery. Of them, the commonest complications are fever and surgical site infection. Post-operative complications of appendicectomy have wide range of presentation from fever to fecal fistula. In this study, the patients presenting with features of post-operative complications of appendicectomy will undergo detailed history taking, clinical examination & investigations like complete blood count, blood sugar, urea and lipid profile, serum creatinine, X-ray chest and wound pus culture sensitivity. The study purpose was to assess the age distribution, sex distribution & to discuss various types of complication. Materials and methods: 100 cases that had presented with features of post-operative complications of appendicectomy in the department of surgery, Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital were evaluated during the study period from April 2012 to October 2013. Results: Our study of 100 randomly selected patients who presented with postoperative complications of appendicectomy. The commonest post-operative complications of appendicectomy were fever (73%), followed by surgical site infection (37%). Most common age group, in which post-operative complications seen, was > 20 years, followed by the 20-30 age group. The surgical site infections were most commonly due to E.coli (64.86%) and Klebsiella species (8.1%). The common day of presentation of fever was 2nd POD with 57.3% cases. In this study 97% case of postoperative complications of appendicectomy occurred after emergency surgeries. Conclusion: Major complications were rare in elective appendicectomies which may reflect the reduced virulence of organisms in those cases.