Table 3.

Primary and secondary outcomes

	Golub 1998	Meynaud-Kraemer 1999	Temple 1999	Bennett 2007	Li 2010	Liu 2010	Sauerland 2010	Wei 2011	Ohtani 2012
Primary outcomes
pain on postoperative day 1 [WMD, 95%-CI]	-	-	-	LA (5) [-0.8, -1.84;0.25]	LA* (8) [-0,7, -1.22;-0.19]	-	LA* (15) [-0.82, -1.14;-0.49]	-	-
wound infections [OR, 95%-CI]	LA* (16) [0.3, 0.19;0.47]†	LA* (8) [0.33, 0.18;0.61]†	LA* (10) [0.4, 0.24;0.69]†	LA* (25) [0.52, 0.39;0.70]	LA* (31) [0.45, 0.34;0.59]†	LA* (13) [0.51, 0.36;0.73]†	LA* (50) [0.43, 0.34;0.54]†	LA* (20) [-, 0.3;0.56]†	LA* (32) [0.46, 0.34;0.62]†
intraabdominal abscesses [OR, 95%-CI]	OA (15) [2.2, 0.88;6.64]†	-	OA (6) [1.94, 0.68;5.58]†	OA* (25) [2.29, 1.48;3.53]†	OA* (17) [1.56, 1.01;2.43]†	-	OA* (45) [1.87, 1.19;2.93]†	OA (12) [-, 0.93;2.14]†	-
mortality	-	-	-	-	-	LA (7)	-	-	-
[OR, 95%-CI]						[0.97, 0.29;3.25]†
secondary outcomes
duration of surgery [WMD, 95%-CI]	OA* (16) [18.3, -;-]	-	OA* (8) [18.1, 12.87;23.15]	OA* (22) [14.61, 9.04;20.19]	OA* (36) [12.35, 7.99;16.72]	OA* (8) [7.6, 6.03;9.17]	OA* (38) [10,24 5.51;14.97]	OA* (25) [10.71, 6.76;14.66]	OA* (36) [13.12, 9.72;16.51]
overall conversion rate {range}	9.7% (14) {0%-20%}	-	11% (-) {5%-20%}	-	-	-	-	-	-
length of hospital stay [WMD, 95%-CI]	LA* (14) [-0,61, -;-]	-	LA (8) [-0.16, -0.44;0.15]†	LA* (18) [-0.62, -1.05;-0.18]	LA* (32) [-0.6, -0.85;-0.36]	LA* (8) [-0.82, -0.93;-0.7]	LA* (34) [-1.13, -1.51;-0.74]	LA* (23) [-0.68, -1.02;-0.35]	LA* (33) [-0.79, -1.06;-0.52]
in-hospital costs (including surgery costs) [OR, 95%-CI]	-	-	-	-	-	-	OA* (6) [1.32, 0.42;2.22]	-	OA (7) [-]
time until return to work [WMD, 95%-CI]	-	-	-	-	-	-	LA (8) [-1.6, -5.22;2.02]	LA* (11) [-3.09, -5.22;-0.97]	LA* (10) [-3.18, -5.09;-1.27]

LA, in favour for laparoscopic appendectomy; (n), number of studies included for analysis; OA, in favour for open appendectomy; OR, Odds ratio; WMD, weighted mean differences; -, not reported; *direction of effect statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05); † homogeneous effect size.