Delaying a child’s appendectomy within 24 hours of their hospital presentation doesn’t increase the risk of complications, according to a retrospective study of nearly 2,500 patients at 23 hospitals.

• Increased time to appendectomy wasn’t linked to complicated appendicitis based on researchers’ multivariate analysis.
• Increasing the time to appendectomy did, however, increase the length of stay for each additional hour that the procedure was delayed, but the delay didn’t result in an increased risk of any secondary outcomes.
• Based on these results, the researchers suggest that appendectomy can be considered an urgent rather than an emergency procedure.