Perforated appendicitis in children: to drain or not to drain?

We studied 66 children with perforated appendicitis at the University of New Mexico to determine whether or not transperitoneal drainage has any advantage in the management of these children. Patients were assigned to one or the other treatment group on the basis of the call schedule of the attending surgeons, two of whom preferred drainage and two of whom did not. Other aspects of appendicitis management (e. g., supportive care, antibiotics) were the same for both groups. Thirty-two other children who had an abscess at the time of appendectomy were excluded from the analysis. The two study groups were similar in age and severity of illness. Postoperative complications (wound infection, abdominal abscess, small-bowel obstruction) had a similar incidence in the two groups: 6/32 (18.8%) for the drained group and 7/34 (20.6%) for the undrained group. The hospital stay was significantly longer for the drained group (mean 10.1 days, median 9 days) versus the undrained group (mean 7.0 days, median 7 days). The power of our study was 0.52; twice our sample size would have been required to achieve a power of 0.80. The evidence suggests that, unless an abscess is present, drainage may be abandoned for children with perforated appendicitis.