According to doctors at the Nottingham Queen’s Medical Centre, antibiotics can be used as a better substitute for appendicitis treatment. Inflamed and infected appendixes should be removed before they rupture causing serious health threats or fatal infections. The Nottingham team based their research from four different trials of antibiotics on 850 patients who had appendicitis.
A research was conducted by doctors and the analysis was published online on the BMJ website. The analysis indicated that using antibiotics could be a safe alternative. However some doctors warned that treating the appendixes with antibiotics could cause the disease to come back in the future.
Approximately 7% of the people in the UK will have appendicitis sometime during their life. Appendix surgical removal is one of the most frequent operations that the NHS performs.
Prof Dileep Lobo mentioned in an interview with the BBC that treatment with antibiotics should be considered, and that many cases would improve from it without having to undergo surgery, and that using this method of treatment reduces the rate of wound infection when you compare it to surgical removal. He also said “The treatment is only meant for those who do not have complicated appendicitis but other patients would still need to have a surgical removal.”
Dr. Olaf Bakker from the Medical centre Utrecht University of the Netherlands said “Using antibiotics for appendicitis treatment has disadvantages. It’s been found that there is about 20% chance of the illness coming back within a year of antibiotic treatment”. He asked for longer researches and studies to take place, in order to eliminate the risk factors. He also mentioned that there were some issues of women fertility risk when being treated with antibiotics for the illness.