Preoperative Hyponatremia Indicates Complicated Acute Appendicitis

Table 1

Patient classification in noncomplicated appendicitis and complicated appendicitis according to sex (Pearson’s x² test), age (Student’s t-test), preoperative presentation (abdominal guarding, nausea/vomiting, and fever—Pearson’s x² test and peritonitis—Fisher’s exact test), postoperative complications (superficial SSI, deep SSI, and systematic—Fisher’s exact test), and preoperative sodium levels (Fischer’s exact test).

Patient demographics		NCA, n = 61	CA, n = 68
Sex	Male, n (%)	40 (58.8)	28 (41.2)	0.006
	Female, n (%)	21 (34.4)	40 (65.6)
Age	Mean (SD)	33.8 (14.7)	45.8 (21.5)	0.017
Preoperative presentation	Abdominal guarding	20 (32.8)	48 (70.6)	<0.001
	Peritonitis	0 (0%)	4 (5.8%)	NS
	Nausea/vomiting	28 (45.9%)	32 (47.1%)	NS
	Fever	7 (11.5%)	10 (14.7%)	NS
Preoperative sodium levels	Normonatremia	60 (98.4%)	40 (58.8%)	0.001
	Hyponatremia	1 (1.6%)	28 (41.2%)
Postoperative complications	Superficial SSI	3 (4.9%)	7 (10.3%)	NS
	Deep SSI abscess	1 (1.6%)	4 (5.8%)	NS
	Systematic	1 (1.6%)	5 (7.3%)	NS

NCA, noncomplicated appendicitis; CA, complicated appendicitis; SD, standard deviation; SSI, surgical site infection; NS, nonsignificant.