Abstract
Two hundred and four children died of acute appendicitis in England and Wales in the five-year period 1963–7. The mortality rate in children less than 5 years old was eight times higher than that in those aged 5–14. It is suggested that diagnosis, intravenous therapy, treatment of convulsions and hyperpyrexia, and anaesthesia are fields where there is room for improvement in management. Moreover, there is a place for the wider use of national medical audits on the lines of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths.
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Selected References
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