INTRODUCTION: To describe the epidemiology of acute appendicitis in the Province of Ontario, we carried out a retrospective population-based cohort study of all patients with acute appendicitis.METHODS: Using hospital discharge abstracts of patients with acute appendicitis from all acute care hospitals in Ontario for the fiscal years 1991-1998 coded for the Canadian Institute for Health Information, we studied the demographic features, particularly age and sex, length of hospital stay (LOS), incidence, and seasonal variation of acute appendicitis.RESULTS: During the observation period, 65,675 cases of acute appendicitis occurred in Ontario. Of these, 58% of the patients were male and 35.5% had perforation. The mean (and standard deviation [SD]) LOS for patients with perforation was 6.2 (5.3) days versus 3 (1.8) days for patients with no perforation (p < 0.001). The age-specific incidence of acute appendicitis followed a similar pattern for males and females, but males had higher rates in all age groups. The incidence was highest in those aged 10-19 years. The annual age and sex-adjusted incidence of acute appendicitis was 75 per 100,000 population. The female:male age-adjusted rate ratio was 1:1.4. During the study period, the rate of acute appendicitis decreased by 5.1%, but the rate of appendicitis with perforation increased by 13%. A significant seasonal effect was also observed, with the rate of acute appendicitis being higher in the summer months.CONCLUSIONS: Appendicitis is more common in males, in those aged 10-19 years, and during the summer months. The frequency of acute appendicitis appears to be decreasing whereas the proportion of cases with perforation appears to be increasing. This may reflect a change in the population structure in Ontario and restrictions placed on the patient access to the health care system.
CITATION STYLE
Kim, J., & Hébert, M. F. (2015). Pharmacological Treatment of Musculoskeletal Conditions During Pregnancy and Lactation. In Musculoskeletal Health in Pregnancy and Postpartum (pp. 227–242). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14319-4_14
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