Acute Appendicitis in Paediatric Patients with Delta and Omicron Variants of SARS-CoV-2: Case Series

Abstract COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is generally milder in children. Acute appendicitis (AA) is a common diagnosis in children, but greater understanding is needed for more adjusted treatment of these patients when in conjunction with acute COVID-19 infection. We provide a retrospective case series study of comparison of patients with AA and positive SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.671.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variants. There were 16 paediatric patients admitted to a tertiary hospital with suspected acute appendicitis and COVID-19. Compared with the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), children infected with Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to have fever ( p = 0.04) and pain migration to the right lower quadrant (RLQ) ( p = 0.02). Further studies are needed to characterise the differences between SARS-CoV-2 variants (Delta vs Omicron) in cases of acute appendicitis in children