In uncomplicated cases
Antibiotics may be enough to treat appendicitis
A Finish study of 530 people, ages 18 to 60, shows that antibiotics, not surgery, were enough to treat appendicitis. Three-fourths of patients treated with antibiotics recovered easily. And no patient who had surgery after a course of antibiotics was worse off because of waiting.
Antibiotics are appropriate only in uncomplicated appendicitis, not in cases where people have a perforated appendix, a blockage or another additional issue.
The study was done at Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland, and details were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
