Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;43(10):1002-1005.
doi: 10.1016/j.asjsur.2020.07.019. Epub 2020 Aug 24.

Complicated appendicitis are common during the epidemic period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Zhiguang Gao  1 , Min Li  2 , Huabin Zhou  3 , Yuzhi Liang  4 , Chao Zheng  5 , Suming Li  6 , Tao Zhang  7 , Weijun Deng  8
Affiliations

Complicated appendicitis are common during the epidemic period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Zhiguang Gao et al. Asian J Surg. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of complicated appendicitis (including gangrene, abscess and perforation) after the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV epidemic and to identify the risk factors associated with complicated appendicitis.

Methods: Two groups were established in the study consisting of: one group for cases of acute appendicitis before the 2019-nCoV epidemic (before January 1, 2020; pre-epidemic group) and another group for those after the epidemic outbreak (after January 1, 2020; epidemic group). These two groups were compared in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics, prevalence of complicated appendicitis, and treatment intention. A multivariate analysis model using binary logistic regression was constructed.

Results: A total of 163 patients were included in this study, with 105 in the pre-epidemic group and 58 in the epidemic group. In the epidemic group, the interval from the onset of symptoms to admission was 65.0 h, which is significantly longer than the 17.3 h interval noted in the pre-epidemic group (P < 0.001). The prevalence of complicated appendicitis after the epidemic outbreak was significantly higher than before the outbreak (51.7% vs. 12.4%, P < 0.001). In addition, the epidemic group had a lower score of patient's intention to seek treatment than the pre-epidemic group (9.5 ± 2.7 vs. 3.4 ± 2.6, P < 0.001). Based on the multivariate analysis, the risk factors for complicated appendicitis included the time from symptoms onset to admission (OR = 1.075) and the patients' intention to receive treatment (OR = 0.541).

Conclusion: Complicated appendicitis was more common in patients with acute appendicitis after the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV epidemic.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; Acute appendicitis; Complicated appendicitis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708–1720. - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO. Novel coronavirus – China. Jan 12, 2020. http://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china/en/ (accessed Jan 19, 2020)
    1. Flum David R. Acute appendicitis — appendectomy or the “antibiotics first” strategy[J] N Engl J Med. 2015;372(20):1937–1943. - PubMed
    1. Güler Y, Karabulut Z, Çaliş H, Şengül S. Comparison of laparoscopic and open appendectomy on wound infection and healing in complicated appendicitis. Int Wound J. 2020;17(4):957–965. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Prospective observational study on acute appendicitis worldwide (POSAW)[J] World J Emerg Surg. 2018;13(1):19. - PMC - PubMed