[Pediatric appendicitis : Open or laparoscopic appendicectomy in a specialized visceral surgical clinic?].

Following the first description of open appendicectomy using a lateral incision in the right lower abdomen by McBurney in 1894, this intervention was considered to be the standard method for treatment of appendicitis for nearly 100 years. In 1983 the gynecologist Semm presented a new option for the surgical therapy of appendicitis with the implementation of laparoscopic appendicectomy. Since then the indications for laparoscopic therapy have developed from young adults through elderly patients to children, pregnant women and finally to infants and newborns.