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AUGUST 15, 2024

Antibiotics or Appendectomy? Tool Helps Patients, Surgeons Discuss Options

By Ajai Srinivas
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David Flum, MD

WASHINGTON—The use of a decision support tool to help patients with appendicitis choose between surgery and antibiotics increases patient knowledge but not decisional conflict, according to findings presented at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Surgical Association. This study represents the first step in an ambitious nationwide effort to promote patient education and shared decision making in appendicitis.

Decision support tools, or DSTs, are