Introduction.

Perioperative mortality is considered one of the key tools to measure the strength of a country’s health system, in the surgical area. Currently, there are no total figures for appendectomies performed in our country, despite being an extremely common surgical procedure.

Methods.

Retrospective cohort study with data from patients of all ages, reported as affiliated to the contributory health system in Colombia and who underwent an appendectomy between 01/01/2011 and 12/31/2016. The information, which was obtained from national databases, was processed by calculating variables such as perioperative mortality rate and surgical volume, estimating a 30-day mortality rate, by sex, age group and geographic region.

Results.

Among the 231,570 appendectomies that were identified, a higher perioperative mortality rate was found in the age group of men older than 80 years with 17.31%. The eastern region had the lowest mortality rate with 0.01%. The highest surgical volume occurred in 2012 and the lowest in 2016.

Discussion.

The mortality rate from appendectomies in different age groups is similar to that of other low- and middle-income countries, while the greater heterogeneity of the mortality rate between the different regions is seen in the groups of children under one year of age and older over 65 years old. This study constitutes an initial approximation to the mortality rate in appendectomies performed in Colombia.

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