Antibiotics may help some patients avoid appendectomy.

HealthDay (4/6, Reinberg) reports, "For people suffering from uncomplicated appendicitis, a course of antibiotics may be just as good as having the appendix removed," according to a study published online April 5 in the BMJ. After analyzing the results of "four studies in which at total of 900 patients with appendicitis were randomly assigned to surgery or antibiotics," researchers found that "among patients treated with antibiotics, 63 percent did not need any further treatment after a year. In addition, antibiotic use resulted in 31 percent fewer complications than surgery."

        "Overall, 20% of the patients in the antibiotic group had an appendectomy after readmission to the hospital within one year, and of those, nine had perforated appendicitis and four had gangrenous disease," MedPage Today (4/6, Neale) reports. "There were no differences between the two groups in treatment efficacy, length of stay, or the risk of developing complicated appendicitis." An accompanying editorial pointed out that "using antibiotics for initial treatment has some disadvantages, including the need for delayed appendectomy in some patients with persistent symptoms, the 20% chance of recurrence within the first year, which may be unacceptable, and the need to perform CT in all patients to rule out perforated appendicitis before starting antibiotics."