Appendicitis

Emergency surgery care delivery is a cornerstone of medicine, enshrined in a culture of curing patients presenting to our hospitals with a wide variety of emergency conditions. Managing acute admissions and presentations to emergency rooms, optimally from the outset, in a timely fashion with appropriate resources offers the best chance for cure. Surgery and its increasingly interdisciplinary team approach to the emergency patient offers that hope. This books engenders a process of suggesting benchmarks and performance indicators to stimulate improvements in care processes and outcomes. Engagement with health administrators, governments and most importantly with the community is vital in moving forward. Emergency general surgery conditions take many lives. It accounts for over 10% of all hospital admissions and has evolved to medicine’s “poor cousin”, falling behind the advances and leadership in other medical fields, particular trauma and injury. The chapters in this book provide some leadership to move forward. Our patients need us to advocate for change, where possible evidence based, giving them the best chance of survival with minimal morbidity and at a reasonable cost.