Laparoscopic Surgery for Appendicitis Outcomes | KK Women's and Children's Hospital

Paediatric Surgery

The Department of Paediatric Surgery started endoscopic procedures in 1997. As of December 2005, the department has performed over 1,375 endoscopic procedures.

The top three therapeutic endoscopic procedures performed in the department were:

Appendicectomy (853 cases)
Video assisted thorascopic surgery for empyema thoracis (68 cases)
Laparoscopic fundoplication / gastrostomy (52 cases)

KKH sees and treat about 160 to 180 cases of childhood appendicitis per year. About one third of these cases are perforated by the time the child comes to KKH. Keyhole surgery (also known as minimally invasive or laparoscopic appendicectomy) is performed for almost all cases including complicated perforated appendicitis or mass forming appendicitis.

Complications such as wound infections, intra-abdominal abscess or adhesive intestinal obstruction arise chiefly only in the group of patients presenting late with perforation. The risk of complications in this group is 5.6%. Occasionally, (about five per cent) conditions other than appendicitis are diagnosed during laparoscopy, which will then be treatment accordingly.

Laparoscopic Appendicectomy Data

Data	Year 2006	Year 2007
Simple Appendicectomy	123	105
Complicated Appendicectomy	54	48
Conversion to Open Surgery	6	10

Data	Year 2003	Year 2004	Year 2005
Appendicectomy with Normal Histology	5% (10/201)	3.6% (8/223)	4.5% (10/219)
Normal Appendix with other pathology	3.5% (7/201)	5.8% (13/223)	6.4% (14/219)