TY  - JOUR
T1  - ANtibiotic use and delayed source control in acute appendicitis—reply
AU  - Abou-Nukta F
Y1  - 2007/01/01
N1  - 10.1001/archsurg.142.1.100-a
JO  - Archives of Surgery
SP  - 100
EP  - 100
VL  - 142
IS  - 1
N2  - 
During the preparation of the manuscript, I did not find any articles showing an increased rate of complications when surgery for appendicitis is delayed for 12 hours. Most articles studying the negative impact of late appendectomy concentrated on delays of several days, usually caused by the patients' delay in seeking medical attention. Dr Badruddoja refers to the recommendations by Dr Lally that “patients with acute, nonperforated appendicitis should undergo urgent appendectomy”1; however, this does not define what urgent is: 2 hours, 10 hours, or 24 hours? In fact, Dr Badruddoja cited 6 references in his letter in addition to ours, none of which discussed the effects of delaying appendectomy for 12 to 24 hours after presentation. I ask the readers to e-mail me if any studies have shown a negative impact of delaying appendectomy for a few hours after diagnosis. On the other hand, several articles showed the lack of such a negative impact,2- 4 and I urge the readers to read those articles.

SN  - 0004-0010
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archsurg.142.1.100-a
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.142.1.100-a
ER  -