Acute appendicitis, a quality of care study in Basrah General Hospital

Abstract EN

This study is designed to evaluate the parameters that indicate the quality of care in acute appendicitis.

It is a prospective study in Basrah General Hospital.

One hundred ten patients underwent appendectomy in the period between March and July 2010, were studied according to a data collection sheet.

The mean duration of symptoms was 29.2 hours and 10 % of patients visited the hospital twice.

Decision to operate depending on clinical diagnosis alone done in 14.54 % of patients while blood cell count was the most frequent investigation done in 78.18 % of the patients.

The mean waiting period was 6.6 hours.

All patients received antibiotics postoperatively while antibiotic prophylaxis used in 74.5 %.

Rate of perforation of appendix was 12.7 %.

Histopathological examination of the removed appendix done in 7.27 %.

The mean hospital stay was 44.02 hours with 20 % of patients developed post operative complications.

Most of our patients were satisfied with hospital services, facilities and staff behavior.

In conclusion, non-utilization of investigations in some patients, long waiting period, high complication rate and extended usage of antibiotics are aspects among others which need to deal with by conducting hospital audits.