Metz: Corentin should not have been operated on for appendicitis

Corentin should not have had an appendectomy. This 11-year-old child died in November 2014 during an intervention in Metz (Moselle). According to his father, who consulted an expert report, submitted in early January, nothing justified this decision. “There was no acute appendicitis, nor immediate indication for operation,” he said at the microphone of AFP.

Corentin’s family filed a complaint against X for manslaughter. The expert report, consulted by The Republican Lorrain, is damning against the staff of the Claude-Bernard clinic in Metz. During the operation, carried out the day after the child’s admission to the emergency room, complications arose. In total, seven practitioners have followed one another at his bedside – including three surgeons.

The report emphasizes that Corentin did not present an indication for an immediate operation. Several flaws were highlighted concerning the operation itself: laparoscopy – used in 70% of cases – was not performed in accordance with the rules of good practice. After the onset of the complication, many minutes were lost before its origin was detected.

Fewer and fewer interventions

Beyond this dramatic news item, the case raises the question of the use of appendectomy. Complications are very rare during these surgeries, and mortality is less than 0.5 per 1,000 in simple appendicitis.

But the question of the right indications is regularly raised. Indeed, strong territorial disparities exist, as shown a health insurance report.

A report from the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) however puts the phenomenon into perspective. Between 2000 and 2003, the number of appendectomies fell by 8% per year. Its authors welcome “a more suitable recourse to surgery”, thanks to the use of predictive diagnostic scores and imaging tools.

Source : DREES

During the 1980s, 300,000 procedures were performed. The fall is therefore real. But regularly, voices are raised against the excessive use of this surgery. Indeed, 80,000 operations remains a very high number. In an attempt to reduce it, a French researcher successfully evaluated the value of antibiotics.