Treating appendicitis with antibiotics is safer and cheaper instead of a surgery, according to a new study.
Researchers found out that antibiotics treatment for kids with simple appendicitis often recovered without the need of going through a knife and they never have to pay much higher bill.
The latest treatment was concluded after researchers screened 629 patients with appendicitis. These patients' ages ranges between seven and 17, who sought help between October 2012 and March 2013. About 22 percent were eligible for the research as they didn't have "severe nor complex cases."
Dr. Peter Minneci, of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio explained to Rueters Health that participants were randomly assigned if they belong to the surgery or antibiotics group, they didn't allow their patients to choose their own treatment.
"By allowing the patient to be involved in the decision process you are allowing them to align their preference and beliefs with the care themselves," Minneci added.
In corollary to the study, 102 participated in the study, 37 families chose to have their children treated with at least 24 hours of antibiotics, through intravenous procedure. Then followed by an oral antibiotics which ran 10 days while the others elected for surgery.
After a year, researchers found out that 76 percent of the patients who chose antibiotics treatment were still healthy and no need for additional treatment. They also found out that antibiotic patients needed an average of "13 fewer days" of rest and the best thing is, their medical bill had an average of $800 lower, compared to patients who underwent surgery.
Minneci also concluded that surgery and antibiotic treatments for appendicitis patients were similar in terms of safety as they found out that there were no cases that became complicated during the study.
However, Minneci cleared out that the team doesn't want to imply that one treatment is much better and effective than the other. Further adding that the antibiotics treatment is just a reasonable alternative for simple appendicitis cases.
Minnec also proudly said that his hospital is already offering the option of antibiotics for simple cases of appendicitis and hoping that other hospitals will eventually introduce the alternative too.
