Abstract
Surgery is often performed in the acute stages of an appendiceal abscess, but in such instances bowel resection or post-operative complications may be encountered. In order to avoid these problems, we performed laparoscopic interval appendectomy (lapIA), a form of laparoscopic appendectomy, about 3 months after conservative treatment in 12 cases of appendiceal abscesses. In 5 cases, percutaneous abscess drainage was also used. The mean operating time for lapIA was 91.3 min. and mean blood loss was 18.8 g. Analgesics were used postoperatively twice on average, and the total hospital stay was 23.8 days. These results were no different from those with single-stage surgery. However, lapIA had a significantly lower percentage of postoperative complications, 0%, in contrast to the 50% seen with single-stage surgery. Thus, lapIA is an effective means of treatment of appendiceal abscesses.
