Diabetes increases the risk of an appendectomy in patients with antibiotic treatment of noncomplicated appendicitis.
BACKGROUND
This retrospective cohort study examined whether diabetic patients have a higher risk for recurrent appendicitis during a 1-year follow-up period after successful antibiotic treatment for patients with acute uncomplicated appendicitis than nondiabetic patients using a population-based database.


METHODS
We included 541 appendicitis patients who received antibiotic treatment for acute appendicitis. We individually tracked each patient for a 1-year period to identify those who subsequently underwent an appendectomy during the follow-up period.


RESULTS
Cox proportional hazard regressions suggested that the adjusted hazard ratio of an appendectomy during the 1-year follow-up period was 1.75 for appendicitis patients with diabetes than appendicitis patients without diabetes. We found that among females, the adjusted hazard ratio of an appendectomy was 2.18 for acute appendicitis patients with diabetes than their counterparts without diabetes. However, we failed to observe this relationship in males.


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated a relationship between diabetes and a subsequent appendectomy in females who underwent antibiotic treatment for noncomplicated appendicitis.
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hsinchu Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Ming-Chieh
MC
Tsai
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Herng-Ching
HC
Lin
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: czl@ntu.edu.tw.
Cha-Ze
CZ
Lee
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001062:Appendectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
Antibiotic treatment; Appendectomy; Appendicitis; Diabetes