Prof. Vera Schellerer, MD, MHBA
Specialist in general, visceral and pediatric surgery
Head of Pediatric Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald
Lecture: Gender-specific considerations in pediatric surgery
Language: German
Appendicitis is the most common abdominal disease requiring surgical intervention in childhood. In terms of lifetime risk, there are gender-specific differences in the population: the lifetime risk of developing appendicitis is 8.7% for men and 6.7% for women, whereas the lifetime appendectomy rate for women is 23% compared with 12% for men. The results are similar in childhood, with girls also having a higher negative appendectomy rate than boys, despite more extensive preoperative imaging; girls also have more surgical complications but a lower rate of perforation of the appendix.
There are therefore important gender-specific differences that should be taken into account in the clinical care of children with appendicitis.
