Appendicitis: the perforation rate when reviewed by decades in a general hospital.

Acute appendicitis at this medical center for 1984 was reviewed and compared with previous studies reporting 1944 and 1964. In 1984, the perforation rate was strikingly higher than the earlier years. It was zero in 1944, rose to 13.6 per cent in 1964, and to 31.4 per cent in 1984. One quarter of perforations in 1984 occurred during the first decade of life. In 1984, 14 per cent (10/70) of all patients with appendicitis were examined by a physician prior to eventual hospitalization; nine had perforated the appendix, representing 41 per cent of all perforations. Major factors responsible for the increase in perforations included (1) an increase in patients less than ten years old (a group at high risk for perforation), and (2) physician or patient delay in hospitalization. We suggest that physician and public education, which has proven effective in the past, should be reinstituted. Critical review of appendicitis should be carried out at individual institutions to identify, and thus, modify trends in this disease. Perforation increases morbidity and cost, yet is easily avoidable.