ACUTE APPENDICITIS IN MINORITY COMMUNITIES - AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY

This study examines the incidence and epidemiological factors of acute appendicitis in various ethnic groups in an:urban minority community The charts of 278 consecutive patients who underwent appendectomy at T he Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Bronx, New York, between January 198 8 and December 1990 were reviewed. Thirty-eight patients who underwent incidental appendectomy and one patient who had an interval appendect omy were excluded. The remaining 239 patients, all of whom had acute a ppendicitis, constituted the study population. The incidence of append icitis for each ethnic group was calculated as a percentage of the tot al emergency surgical admissions for that group. Acute appendicitis co nstituted 3.1% of all emergency admissions to the surgical service ove r the period studied and: represented 4.5% of surgical service admissi ons from the emergency department in Hispanics, 1.9% in African Americ ans, 1.5% in whites, and 21% in Asians. These differences were statist ically significant except some comparisons involving whites. There wer e no significant differences in the pathological findings regarding th e diseased appendix in different racial groups. These results indicate that acute appendicitis is responsible for a higher incidence of emer gency admissions among Hispanics than among African Americans. This fi nding was statistically significant. High white blood cell counts indi cated inflammation of the appendix, but had no predictive value For th e type of pathology. Surgical findings were similar in all groups.