Perforation in pediatric non-complicated appendicitis treated by antibiotics: the real incidence

Study reassessing imaging from pediatric non-complicated appendicitis cases treated with antibiotics found that perforation incidence during treatment is less than 1% when initial misdiagnosis is excluded. Blind review of pre-treatment scans revealed over half of perforations were present before antibiotic therapy began, demonstrating that inappropriate triage inflates reported perforation rates.