Seasonal variation of acute appendicitis in Erbil province

Background and objective: Acute appendicitis is the commonest surgical emergencies present throughout all months of the year, but some particular months are associated with higher rates of its incidence. A seasonal pattern of appendicitis with a mostly predominant peak is seen during the summer months in most countries. The aim of this study is to analyze the current knowledge and controversies related to seasonal variability of acute appendicitis in Erbil city. Methods: A search was conducted using Microsoft Access version 2010, which includes all of the case data from East Erbil Emergency Hospital from March 2, 2010, to November 17, 2021. Some of the patients were eliminated from the study in order to control the incidence of acute appendicitis by season and year. Results: In this retrospective study, the ages of the patients included were between 1 – 92 years, with a mean age and SD of 24.74 ± 12.29 years, the gender distribution was (56.9%) male and (43.1%) female, in extreme age groups only 316 cases recorded, the most common age group affected by acute appendicitis was teenagers (36.23%), Maximum number of cases presented during summer period (1713 cases, 28.08%) particularly June. while autumn season has least incidence (1293 cases, 21.2%) especially November. Conclusion: The exact cause of seasonal variation of the incidence of acute appendicitis is still unclear, further studies are necessary to determine the association between seasonal occurrence of acute appendicitis and these factors.