Additionally, an “”open session”" allowed for any unscheduled Screening Library in vitro emergency operating. Statistical analysis Distribution of continuous variables are reported as median and interquartile range (IQR) (25th; 75th centiles). Categorical variables are presented as numbers and percentages. The comparison between subgroups

was carried out using Student’s t test, or Mann-Whitney U test, (for continuous variables). Qualitative data were compared by the Chi square test or Fisher’s exact test when necessary. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS 16.0 for Windows software (SPSS Inc, Chicago, Illinois, USA). For all comparisons, a two-sided p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Demographic and clinical details are summarized in table 1 with no see more differences between groups. For the entire cohort of 67 patients the distribution of time of admission (figure 1a), the distribution of time of surgery (figure 1b), showed no difference, allowing us to compare two groups

for any delays to theatre. check details Figure 1c demonstrates time required from decision to operate to time for surgery, again demonstrating no difference (Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.349). A comparison using mean and 95% confidence interval suggested absence of type II error, though, of course, this cannot be entirely ruled out. Thus no differences between the two groups were found regarding time from admission to surgery (24.4 (95% CI 11.2;27.6) hours versus 16.1 (95% CI 10.4;21.7)

hours, Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.35), postoperative length of stay (90.8 (95% CI 61.4;120.1) hours versus 70 (95% CI 48.3;91.6) hours, Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.25) and total length of stay (115.2 (95% CI 84.6;145.7) hours versus 86 (95% CI 61.6;110.4) hours, Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.07). Figure 1 Distribution of patients admitted, with a suspected diagnosis of appendicitis, during the day clustered by time of admission (a), time of operation (b) and delay from making to diagnosis to operation (c) across both groups and overall. Table 1 Demographic and clinical details   Group 1 Group Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase 2     Period January–March August–October p Test Number of patients (n) 36 31 –   Males (n) 27 17 0.08 Fisher’s exact Age (mean;95% CI) 20.7 (16.6;24.7) 25 (19;31) 0.36 Mann-Whitney U Perioperative antibiotics (n) 15 15 0.63 Fisher’s exact Complications (n) 4 0 0.12 Fisher’s exact Confirmed appendicitis 33 28 1 Fisher’s exact Appendix histology*            Normal 3 4        Inflammed 19 20 0.07 Fisher’s exact    Necrosed 11 2        Perforated 3 5     Four patients had post-operative complications: 3 of these were operated within 5–10 hours from admission while the remaining one was operated 18 hours after the admission. In all the 4 patients requiring readmission within a week of discharge, the appendicectomy was performed with a delay of more than 10 hours.