Comparative Study between Laparoscopic versus Open Appendectomy in Management of Acute Appendicitis

Background: Acute appendicitis is the most common sur-gical cause of acute abdomen. The treatment of choice of acute appendicitis is appendectomy. Appendectomy is one of the most commonly performed general surgical operations and it is the most common abdominal emergency surgery. Aim of Study: The aim of this study was to compare be-tween laparoscopic and open appendectomy in treatment of acute appendicitis regarding the efficacy, safety, postoperative complications and outcome. Patients and Methods: This prospective comparative study was conducted in General Surgery Department at Damanhour Medical National Institute in the period between January 2023 and December 2024. It included 100 patients with acute ap-pendicitis who were randomly divided into two equal groups: A (underwent laparoscopic appendectomy) and B (underwent open appendectomy). Results: The operative time was comparable in both groups. 4 cases of laparoscopic appendectomy were converted to open (8.0%). The length of hospital stay and the duration needed to return to normal daily activities were significantly shorter in the laparoscopic group. In addition, the early postoperative pain, incidence of wound infection and total number of postoperative complications were significantly less in the laparoscopic group. Conclusion: Laparoscopic appendectomy, whenever feasi-ble, is the more preferred option compared to conventional open appendectomy especially in obese as well as muscular patients in whom open appendectomy represents a technical challenge.