Appendectomy During Pregnancy and Child Development

Appendectomy During Pregnancy in General Anesthesia With Perioperative Management Does Not Influence Normal Child Development: 10-year Study

Maternal acute appendicitis during pregnancy is the most common abdominal surgical emergency. Long-term neurodevelopmental issues were scarcely reported. The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of appendicitis and appendectomy during pregnancy in general anesthesia on the cognitive and psychomotor development of children.

Maternal acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common emergent abdominal surgical condition during pregnancy. Brain development in a fetus is dynamic and complex, and therefore much more vulnerable to different agents. Gastrointestinal operations during pregnancy are performed in general anesthesia and anesthetic neurotoxicity in the developing brain, through the period from a fetus to a child, delivered inconsistent results.

Child development after AA or other intra-abdominal inflammatory/infective condition during pregnancy was not consistently reported or studied. In most reports, the length of fetal follow-up after appendectomy for AA during pregnancy is not defined, not stated, or declared as 'uneventful'.

Investigators will make a study with a structured children's cognitive and neurodevelopmental follow-up whose mothers had operated acute appendicitis during pregnancy.

Inclusion Criteria:

• all pregnant women operated for acute appendicitis (January 2006- December 2020)

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnant women younger than 18
• nonpregnant women