Figure 2.

Development of in-hospital mortality and proportion of cases with complicated course, stratified by severity of appendicitis (complicated versus uncomplicated)

Mortality is higher for appendectomy cases with complicated appendicitis than for appendectomy cases with uncomplicated appendicitis and shows a declining trend over time (a).

The proportion of cases with a complicated course is higher for appendectomy cases with complicated appendicitis than for appendectomy cases with uncomplicated appendicitis. No temporal trend is evident (b).