Is previous abdominal surgery a challenge for laparoscopic appendectomy?

Aim: Appendectomy is one of the most common emergent surgery and is performed open or laparoscopically.Previous abdominal surgery (AS) is a limiting factor in all procedures, including laparoscopic appendectomy.In this study, we aimed to investigate effect of previous abdominal surgery on laparoscopic appendectomy.Material and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 164 patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy in the General Surgery Department of XXX Hospital between January 2019 and December 2021.Seven were excluded due to missing data, and histopathology was not appendicitis.Patients were divided into two groups, abdominal surgery and non-abdominal surgery, and compared in terms of open conversion, complication rates, operation time, and length of stay.Statistically, significance was accepted as p<0.05.Results: 88 (56.1%) were female, 69 (43.9%) were male of 157 patients.The mean age was 32.914.4(18-74) years.14 (8.9%) patients were with previous abdominal surgery.The mean operative time was 30.59.9 (17-102) minutes, and the length of hospital stay was 27.212.9(15-163) hours.No mortality or intraoperative complications were observed, and the postoperative complication rate was 10.2%.There were no statistically significant differences between the groups for age (p=0.478),gender (p=0.075),postoperative complication (p=0.28), and length of hospital stay (p=0.075).There were statistically significant differences between the groups for conversion to open appendectomy rate (p=0.016) and operation time (p=0.008).Discussion: We recommend that laparoscopy should be started in all cases of acute appendicitis since there was no significant difference between the groups in complication rates and length of hospitalization.