David Flum News Today

Quotable quotes heard by <em>MedPage Today</em>'s reporters

Recent studies have focused on whether appendicitis can be managed with antibiotics alone

Decades after antibiotic treatment, 60% of patients had avoided appendectomy

Patients who believed antibiotics would be completely successful had lower risk for appendectomy

Researchers at the University of Washington said their results revealed the powers of the mind and the placebo effect. This is the idea that your brain can convince you treatment is working.

A study reinforces a link between appendicoliths and appendectomies after antibiotics, but its author said theres a surprising lack of connection for other factors that tilt patients toward surgery.

Clinical risk factors were not as important, study finds

Nobody likes surgery -- antibiotics can help with that!

Antibiotics are now an accepted first-line treatment for most people with appendicitis, according to final results of the Comparing Outcomes of antibiotic Drugs and Appendectomy (CODA) trial, and an updated treatment guideline for appendicitis from the American College of Surgeons.

CODA trial follow-up data may shift opinions