Appendicitis is the most common cause for emergency abdominal surgery in childhood, affecting 80,000 children in the United States each year, but nonoperative treatment options are viable. A study performed by the Midwest Pediatric Surgery Consortium, led by Peter Minneci, MD, and Katherine Deans, MD, co-founders and directors of the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and published online today in JAMA, found antibiotics alone successfully treated children with uncomplicated appendicitis and was associated with fewer disability days at one year.
