Tamjeed Gul, Maryam Alam Khan, Sana Sahar, Waheed Kamran, Uzma Andaleeb.
Epidemiological and demographic features of appendicitis and influences of several environmental factors.
Pak J Surg Jan ;30(3):245-7.

Objective: To determine the seasonality and frequencies of acute appendicitis in diff erent age groups and gender. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study Sett ing and Duration: Surgical department, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar from January 1st 2005 to December 31st 2010. Materials & Methods: Data of all diagnosed cases of appendicitis, aged 5 years to 70 years of both gender who underwent appendectomy were recorded from Hospital ward and operation theatre record books. We excluded cases of incidental appendectomies, appendicular abscess and right hemi colectomies for causes other than perforated appendix. Statistical Analysis used: Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS for windows version 17. Results: Total number of patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis during this period was 1823, ranging from 10 years age to 70 years including 1044 (57.3%) male patients and 779 (42.7%) female patients, Th e mean age is 22.40 years (SD +11.97) with male to female ratio of 1.3 :1 . Acute appendicitis was most prevalent in teen age group (48.3%). Th e frequencies of appendicitis were highest in summer i.e 30.8%. A frequency of 25% each was observed in spring and winters, while the lowest was in autumn i.e 18%. Conclusion: In this study obvious differences were observed in the frequencies of acute appendicitis for different seasons, age groups and genders with higher prevalence in teen age group, male gender and summer season.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com