Antibiotic Duration After Laparoscopic Appendectomy for Acute Complicated Appendicitis.

IMPORTANCE: Optimal duration of antibiotic treatment to reduce infectious complications after an appendectomy for acute complicated appendicitis remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of antibiotic duration on infectious complications after laparoscopic appendectomy for acute complicated appendicitis.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: National multicenter prospective, observational, surgical resident-led cohort study conducted in June and July 2014. This study involved academic teaching hospitals (n = 8), community teaching hospitals (n = 38), and community nonteaching hospitals (n = 16), and all consecutive patients (n = 1975) who underwent surgery for suspected acute appendicitis.

EXPOSURES: Patients treated laparoscopically for whom the antibiotic regimens were prolonged postoperatively because of complicated appendicitis.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Receiving either 3 or 5 days of antibiotic treatment as planned and additional variables were explored as risk factors for infectious complications using regression analyses.

RESULTS: A total of 1975 patients were included in 62 participating Dutch hospitals; 1901 (96.3%) of these underwent an appendectomy for acute appendicitis and laparoscopy was used in 74.4% of these patients (n = 1415). In 415 laparoscopically treated patients, antibiotic treatment was continued for more than 24 hours because of acute complicated appendicitis (29.3%). The prescribed antibiotic duration varied between 2 and 6 days in all of these patients. In 123 patients (29.6%), the length of treatment was adjusted. A shorter duration of antibiotic treatment (3 days instead of 5) had no significant effect on any infectious complication (odds ratio [OR], 0.93; 95% CI, 0.38-2.32; P = .88) or on intra-abdominal abscess development (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.34-2.35; P = .81). Perforation of the appendix was the only independent risk factor for the development of an infectious complication (OR, 4.90; 95% CI, 1.41-17.06; P = .01) and intra-abdominal abscess (OR, 7.46; 95% CI, 1.65-33.66; P = .009) in multivariable regression analysis.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Lengthening of postoperative antibiotic treatment to 5 days was not associated with a reduction in infectious complications. Further restriction of antibiotic treatment can be considered in nonperforated complicated appendicitis.