[Incidence of appendectomy and length of hospital stay in a region of West Germany].

Based on public health routine data, a study on the incidence of appendectomies was carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany. The result of 130 appendectomies per 100,000 inhabitants per annum comes very close to the findings made in England and Wales though it only represents one fifth of the figure, Lichtner and Pflanz had established for some other region about 20 years ago. Duration of hospitalization averaged 10.6 days, thus showing a reduction of 2 days compared to the earlier study. In England and Wales however, the average length of stay in hospital came up to only 5.6 days. The length of stay, standardized by age and sex, showed differences of more than 4 days on the various wards. The possible influences of institution inherent factors on the frequency of operations and on the duration of hospitalization are discussed.