Appendectomy Versus Conservative Treatment for Uncomplicated Acute Appendicitis (ACTUAA)

Mauro Podda

Status: Completed

Conditions: Appendicitis Recurrent; Antibiotic Therapy; Acute Appendicitis; Appendectomy

Treatments: Drug: Antibiotic-first therapy; Procedure: Laparoscopic or Open appendectomy

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03080103

No ID

Details and patient eligibility

About

On September the 15th, 2015, Italian surgeons, radiologists and pathologists with a special interest and expertise in the diagnosis and management of Acute Appendicitis (AA), met up under the auspices of the Italian Society of Hospital Surgeons (ACOI) in Oristano (Italy) to constitute the ACTUAA collaborative working group. The main objectives of the working group are:

To create a working basis for analyzing the diagnostic features, treatment modalities and outcomes of interest of both the antibiotic-first approach and appendectomy for patients with uncomplicated AA.

To investigate the clinical, laboratory and radiologic modalities adopted for the diagnosis To determine the outcomes of patients treated with antibiotics or appendectomy in the short and long term periods.

To compare results according to the type of intervention. To stratify the risk of recurrence for patients treated with antibiotics according to clinical, laboratory and radiology findings.

To evaluate the sensibility and specificity of clinical and laboratory scores for the diagnosis of uncomplicated AA.

To identify a subgroup of patients with uncomplicated AA for whom antibiotic treatment can be highly effective.

General study design The study protocol is designed according to the "SPIRIT 2013 explanation and elaboration: guidance for protocols of clinical trials".

The study period is estimated to be of 12 month + 12 month of follow-up (with a second session of follow-up following 5-years), beginning on 01/04/2017.

Participants All adult patients (aged over 18 years old) with suspected AA will be admitted to the Surgical Department of the nine participating Italian hospitals, where they will be studied carefully by the on call surgeon.

Patients will be then informed of the study protocol and invited to give written consent for participation and for sensible data collection for scientific purposes.

Subsequently, only patients who will undergo diagnostic imaging (as specified later) and from whom a written informed consent will be obtained, can be enrolled in the study and registered by each Center using a uniform electronic registration form and database.

General characteristics, medical history, clinical findings, physical investigation, and blood tests will be reported in the medical record. Pain will be quantified by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scoring system before administrating any pain medications and after the treatments.

In order to enter the study, patients will have to undergo diagnostic imaging (US and/or CT scan or MRI scan) and only the diagnosis of uncomplicated AA confirmed by diagnostic imaging will permit patient enrollment in the study.

Specific aims of the ACTUAA Study The objective of this prospective non-randomized controlled, multicenter, multidisciplinary trial is to compare the antibiotic therapy and emergency appendectomy for the treatment of patients with uncomplicated AA(without abscess or free perforation), confirmed by US and/or CT or MRI scan. No changes in the daily practice regarding the diagnostic, clinical and treatment pathways will be required to the participating centers. However, only the patients with uncomplicated AA, confirmed by one of the above mentioned radiologic tools will be enrolled in the study. The decision on which of the tools are to be adopted will be up to the local lead surgeon.

Primary Outcome Measure:

Number of participants with complication-free treatment success, defined as success of the initial treatment with uncomplicated course.

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Length of hospital stay; Pain evaluation; Time to return to normal activity; Period of sick-leave; Complicated appendicitis with peritonitis identified at the time of surgical operation; Quality of life as assessed by the Short Form 12-scale (SF-12)

Enrollment: 300 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Signed informed consent
• Age over 18 years
• Uncomplicated AA confirmed by US and/or CT or MRI scan.

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy or lactating
• Diffuse peritonitis at physical examination
• Serious systemic illness
• Positive anamnesis for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Trial design

300 participants in 2 patient groups

Patients submitted to appendectomy as first-line treatment

Description:

Open or Laparoscopic Appendectomy The assignment of each patient to either the "antibiotic-first management" arm or the "immediate surgery" arm, will be non-randomized and decided independently by the Staff Specialist Surgeon on Call, upon careful assessment of AIR score, laboratory findings and imaging. The decision of the management pathway will not be influenced in any case by the participation of the patient in the study, and the assignment of the treatment will be decided by the consultant surgeon according to current good surgical practice and standard practice patterns in Italy.

Treatment:

Procedure: Laparoscopic or Open appendectomy

Patients treated with antibiotic-first strategy

Description:

Antibiotic therapy.maging. Patients managed conservatively will receive one of the following parenteral antibiotic treatments: Piperacillin/Tazobactam (4.5 g) three intravenous administration per day; Ceftriaxone (2 g) once per day or Ciprofloxacin (500 mg) twice per day plus Metronidazole (500 mg) three times per day; Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid (2 g) four times per day for a length depending on the clinical conditions; Ertapenem (1 g) one administration per day for three days. Patients were discharged with oral antibiotics (amoxicillin/clavulanic acid or ciprofloxacin) for at least four days.

Treatment:

Drug: Antibiotic-first therapy