Are only a few hours adequate for hospitalisation following mini-incision open appendectomy in paediatric patients?

BACKGROUND: A very short hospital length of stay following an open appendectomy in children with acute simple appendicitis has never been mentioned yet in the literature. The authors reviewed the outcome of these paediatric patients who were treated with the open technique.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this analytical cohort observational study, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the 115 consecutive patients who underwent open appendectomy from June 2017 to July 2021.

RESULTS: There were 84 patients whose appendices were inflammatory or suppurative and appendectomies were done only through McBurney's point. Of these, the average age was 9.11 ± 2.67 years. The mean length of the incision was 1.95 ± 0.48 cm. Nearly one-third (25/85) were discharged within 3 h following surgery. Of the remaining cases, nine patients were discharged within the same day. There were increased percentages of patients who were eligible for early discharge in each consecutive year.

CONCLUSION: The idea of immediate discharge within 3 h seems to be feasible for children with acute simple appendicitis who were treated with open appendectomy. We believe that the practice will be widely acknowledged and proceed to reduce the resources and the expenses in the hospital.