Local Action, Global Impact: Acute Appendicitis as a Metric for Surgical Care Quality

Abstract

Throughout history, renowned clinicians, anatomists, and researchers have endeavoured to understand acute appendicitis over the course of two millennia. Galen referred to the condition as "colic passion," while the eminent anatomists Vesalius and Fallopius both made early descriptions of the human appendix. In the absence of effective operative techniques, treatment methods were limited, with Boerhaave advocating heated bowel washouts, compression, and bloodletting. It wasn't until the early eighteenth century that English and French surgeons described the operative removal of the human appendix.