Appendicitis: To Operate or Not to Operate

This year about 700,000 appendectomies will be performed in North America. And although the lowly appendix does not get the attention associated with other problems, each year nearly 3,000 people will die of appendicitis. But do all cases require surgery? We’ve come a long way since the French surgeon Dupuytren ridiculed the idea that the appendix could be the cause of infection. Later, Henry Sands, a New York surgeon, simply stitched up a hole in an appendix! It’s also hard to believe that another surgeon, just straightened out the kinks in the appendix! If these patients survived, it was the Almighty who saved them.