Mortality from acute appendicitis is associated with complex disease and co-morbidity.

Background: Studies evaluating mortality in patients with acute appendicitis focus on the outcomes of appendicectomy alone. We hypothesize this may not be representative of what happens in clinical practice as a small proportion of patients with acute appendicitis undergo procedures other than appendicectomy, for example, caecectomy or right hemicolectomy. To clarify the issue, the authors evaluated Australian adult patients who died with a primary diagnosis of acute appendicitis regardless of whether they underwent an operation or the type of operation performed.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of systematically collected mortality data from the Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality was conducted on adults who died in hospital with a primary diagnosis of acute appendicitis between January 2009 and December 2012.

Results: Twenty-six patients died with a primary diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The median age was 83 years and the median number of co-morbidities was three. Four patients died without surgery due to their family's wishes. Twenty-two patients were treated surgically: five for right hemicolectomy, four for laparoscopic/McBurney appendicectomy, 10 for laparotomy with appendicectomy, two for unknown method of appendicectomy and one for open abscess drainage.

Conclusion: Most adult patients who died following surgery for acute appendicitis did not undergo simple appendicectomy but underwent more complicated procedures for complex appendicitis.