--- title: Appendicitis: Study Suggests Antibiotics As Alternative to Surgery description: 300,000 Americans are affected by acute appendicitis every year canonical: https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/ author: Katy Osborn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T19:32:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:15:36.223Z article:section: Health og:title: Antibiotics May Be an Appendectomy Alternative, Study Says og:description: 300,000 Americans experience acute appendicitis every year og:url: https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0d78a564f0d0e27/698854be2dce016cd59e4322/appendicitis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: appendectomy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Antibiotics May Be an Appendectomy Alternative, Study Says twitter:description: 300,000 Americans experience acute appendicitis every year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0d78a564f0d0e27/698854be2dce016cd59e4322/appendicitis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Antibiotics May Be Alternative to Appendectomy Surgery, Study Finds ## Video: How Many Glasses of Water Do You Need a Day? [Watch (HLS stream): How Many Glasses of Water Do You Need a Day?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SuprpRYK.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2015-05-15. Does everyone need eight glasses of water every day? Does drinking lots of water help people lose weight? Our healthy skeptic separates myths from facts._ by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 16, 2015 7:32 PM UTC  Surgeons removing an appendix in Pretoria, South Africa. Surgeons removing an appendix in Pretoria, South Africa.Getty Images by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 16, 2015 7:32 PM UTC With one in 10 Americans affected by acute appendicitis at some point in their lives—a whopping 300,000 a year—appendectomy surgery has become a routine procedure in the U.S. health care system. But according to a new study, antibiotics may be a strong alternative to surgery in uncomplicated cases of acute appendicitis. The study, published Tuesday in the [_Journal of the American Medical Association_](http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2320315), consisted of 530 patients with appendicitis ranging in age from 18 to 60 who were split randomly into two groups: 273 of them underwent standard open appendectomy surgery, while the other 257 received antibiotic treatment. While 272 of the 273 appendectomy surgeries were successful, 186 of the patients treated with antibiotics did not require surgery at all. Those in the antibiotic group who did ultimately require surgery during a one-year follow-up period (70 patients) showed no signs of complications associated with delaying the procedure. The study, which was conducted from November 2009 to June 2012 in Finland, raises questions about the routinized use of appendectomy surgery to treat appendicitis—but it is not without its [critics](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/health/antibiotics-resurface-as-alternative-to-removing-appendix.html), who point out that little is known about the causes of appendicitis. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/"},"headline":"Antibiotics May Be Alternative to Appendectomy Surgery, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-06-16T19:32:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:15:36.223Z","description":"300,000 Americans are affected by acute appendicitis every year","url":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/","keywords":["Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0d78a564f0d0e27/698854be2dce016cd59e4322/appendicitis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Osborn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0d78a564f0d0e27/698854be2dce016cd59e4322/appendicitis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"appendectomy","caption":"appendectomy","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/","name":"Antibiotics May Be Alternative to Appendectomy Surgery, Study Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Many Glasses of Water Do You Need a Day?","description":"Does everyone need eight glasses of water every day? Does drinking lots of water help people lose weight? Our healthy skeptic separates myths from facts.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SuprpRYK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-15T21:16:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SuprpRYK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/","duration":"PT2M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3923235/antibiotics-appendicitis/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```