David R Flum, Giana H Davidson, Sarah E Monsell, Nathan I Shapiro, Stephen R Odom, Sabrina E Sanchez, F Thurston Drake, Katherine Fischkoff, Jeffrey Johnson, Joe H Patton, Heather Evans, Joseph Cuschieri, Amber K Sabbatini, Brett A Faine, Dionne A Skeete, Mike K Liang, Vance Sohn, Karen McGrane, Matthew E Kutcher, Bruce Chung, Damien W Carter, Patricia Ayoung-Chee, William Chiang, Amy Rushing, Steven Steinberg, Careen S Foster, Shaina M Schaetzel, Thea P Price, Katherine A Mandell, Lisa Ferrigno, Matthew Salzberg, Daniel A DeUgarte, Amy H Kaji, Gregory J Moran, Darin Saltzman, Hasan B Alam, Pauline K Park, Lillian S Kao, Callie M Thompson, Wesley H Self, Julianna T Yu, Abigail Wiebusch, Robert J Winchell, Sunday Clark, Anusha Krishnadasan, Erin Fannon, Danielle C Lavallee, Bryan A Comstock, Bonnie Bizzell, Patrick J Heagerty, Larry G Kessler, David A Talan
BACKGROUND: Antibiotic therapy has been proposed as an alternative to surgery for the treatment of appendicitis. METHODS: We conducted a pragmatic, nonblinded, noninferiority, randomized trial comparing antibiotic therapy (10-day course) with appendectomy in patients with appendicitis at 25 U.S. centers. The primary outcome was 30-day health status, as assessed with the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) questionnaire (scores range from 0 to 1, with higher scores indicating better health status; noninferiority margin, 0...
November 12, 2020: New England Journal of Medicine