Pills for appendicitis? Surgery often unnecessary, according to a study

CHICAGO – A new study indicates that surgery is not always necessary for appendicitis and that antibiotics can often do the trick.

The results in Finland contradict decades of reflection on the best way to treat an inflamed appendage. It has long been thought that the condition was a medical emergency because of the risk of appendix rupture that could be life threatening. But advances in imaging tests make it easy to determine which patients are exposed to this hazard.

The study of 500 adults showed that nearly two-thirds of antibiotic-treated patients withstood well after five years. About one-third had another case of appendicitis and were operated on to pull out their appendix.

The results were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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