Table 3.

Effects of delaying appendectomy on incidence of postoperative complications

Ref.	Publishing year	Age (yr)	Patients (n)	Delay	Conclusion
Aiken et al[23]	2020	≥ 18	1372	In-hospital	No differences between delayed cases and nondelayed cases for POCs
Almström et al[26]	2017	< 15	2756	In-hospital	Timing of surgery was not an independent risk factor for POCs
van Dijk et al[30]	2018	Unrestricted	20668	In-hospital	Delaying appendicectomy for presumed uncomplicated appendicitis for up to 24 h after admission does not appear to be a risk factor for postoperative SSI
Kim et al[35]	2018	Unrestricted	397	In-hospital	The time from CT to operation has no effect on the results of appendicitis
Boomer et al[36]	2016	< 18	1338	In-hospital	A 16-h delay from ED presentation or a 12-h delay from hospital admission to appendectomy was not associated with an increased risk for SSI
Fair et al[37]	2015	Unrestricted	69926	In-hospital	There was a 2-fold increase in complication rate for patients delayed longer than 48 h
Lee et al[84]	2012	< 18	683016	In-hospital	In-hospital delay beyond 2 d is associated with significant negative outcomes with regard to complications
Teixeira et al[85]	2012	Unrestricted	4108	In-hospital	Appendectomy delay was associated with a significantly increased risk of SSI in patients with nonperforated appendicitis

The table is not an exhaustive list and the scope has been restricted to references that are discussed in the main text. CT: Computed tomography; ED: Emergency department; POCs: Postoperative complications; SSI: Surgical-site infection.