Experience in the Care of Patients Under 16 Years of Age with Acute Appendicitis at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio between 2014 and 2019

Objective: To describe the characteristics of the care of patients under 16 years old with acute appendicitis taken to appendectomy between January 2014 and May 2019. Methodology: Retrospective descriptive observational study of the records of patients with acute appendicitis over 5 years. Results: 257 records met the inclusion criteria. The average age of the patients was 9.5 years. The average diagnosis time from admission was 7 hours and they were taken to surgery in the first 6 hours after diagnosis. The majority were uncomplicated appendicitis with a low percentage of postoperative complications. Six percent of patients underwent intraoperative peritoneal fluid culture without this involving significant changes in medical behavior. Conclusions: The success in the management of acute appendicitis in pediatric patients of hospital reflects high quality care. The use of ampicillin sulbactam as an empirical management shows favorable results with a low complication rate. Peritoneal fluid culture did not generate changes in medical or surgical behavior. Given the above, it is feasible to make reasonable use of resources, providing high quality care with optimal results and a lower cost to the health system.