Pain, Early Mobility, and Return to Activities after Open and Laparoscopic Appendectomy: A Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62827/fb.v27i5.1239Keywords:
Appendicitis; Laparoscopy; Early Ambulation; Enhanced Recovery After Surgery; Physical Therapy Modalities.Abstract
Introduction: Appendectomy is among the most commonly performed emergency abdominal operations, with growing predominance of the laparoscopic approach. Once the technical debate was settled, functional recovery — including pain, mobility and return to activities — became a central and still underexplored issue. Objective: Functional recovery after open and laparoscopic appendectomy was described and critically analysed, focusing on postoperative pain, early mobilization and return to activities, and the role of physiotherapy and multiprofessional care was discussed. Methods: A narrative, descriptive and qualitative review. The search was carried out between January and June 2026 in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), via PubMed, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and Cochrane Library, with descriptors from the Descritores em Ciências da Saúde (DeCS) and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Portuguese and English, combined through the boolean operators AND and OR. Studies from 2015 to 2026, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, related to appendectomy and functional recovery were included, with earlier classic works admitted; case reports, paediatric studies and texts without full-text access were excluded. Selection was made by consensus among the authors, through reading of titles, abstracts and full texts, with descriptive analysis. Results: The 23 sources analysed indicate that laparoscopy reduces wound infection and length of stay and allows an earlier return to activities, with only a modest difference in early postoperative pain. Pain control, early mobilization and convalescence advice influenced the outcome as much as the surgical approach, supporting physiotherapy stratified by risk. Conclusion: Optimizing pain, mobilization and advice is as relevant as the choice of technique, requiring standardized functional outcomes and research adapted to the Brazilian setting, in which the open approach still predominates.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Rafael Viana dos Santos Coutinho, Davi Lucarelli Rodrigues, Ewelyn Lemos Gonçalves, Otávio Schmidt Feltrin, Júlia Nogueira Mourão (Autor)
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