Conservative management of post-appendicectomy intra-abdominal abscesses

PURPOSE Appendicitis is the most common abdominal inflammatory process in children which were sometimes followed by complications including intra-abdominal abscess. This later needs classically a surgical drainage. We evaluated the efficacy of antibiotic treatment and surgical drainage. METHODS Hospital records of children treated in our unit for intra-abdominal post appendectomy abscesses over a 6 years period were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS This study investigates a series of 14 children from 2 to 13 years of age with one or many abscesses after appendectomy, treated between 2002 and 2007. Seven underwent surgery and the others were treated with triple antibiotherapy. The two groups were comparable. For the 7 patients who receive medical treatment alone, it was considered efficient in 6 cases (85%) with clinical, biological and radiological recovery of the abscess. There was one failure (14%). The duration of hospitalization from the day of diagnosis of intra-abdominal abscess was approximately 10.28 days (range 7 to 14 days). In the other group, the efficacy of treatment was considered satisfactory in all cases. The duration of hospitalization was about 13 days (range: 9 to 20). CONCLUSION Compared to surgical drainage, antibiotic management of intra-abdominal abscesses was a no invasive treatment with shorter hospitalization.