Intended for healthcare professionals

Research Article

Wound sepsis after cholecystectomy: effect of incidental appendicectomy.

Br Med J 1977; 1 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.6052.20 (Published 01 January 1977) Cite this as: Br Med J 1977;1:20
  1. A V Pollock,
  2. M Evans

    Abstract

    The records of a consecutive series of 224 patients were analysed to discover the effect of incidental appendicectomy on the wound sepsis rate after cholecystectomy. One hundred and five patients had had a cholecystectomy alone and 119 cholecystectomy with incidental appendicectomy. The incidence of wound sepsis in patients not given adequate antibiotic prophylaxis was significantly lower (16-1%) when cholecystectomy alone was carried out than when the appendix was removed as well (41-1%).