Estimating the potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment of acute appendicitis in Thailand using a secondary data analysis of service utilization before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdown policy

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies; however, optimal diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis remains challenging. We used the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown policy as a natural experiment to explore potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment of acute appendicitis in Thailand. The aim of this study was to estimate the potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment of acute appendicitis in Thailand by examining service utilization before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown policy.

Learn more: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270241