I think we're getting better about non-surgical interventions when it's not necessary. Appendicitis can, and is, treated with antibiotics, but the timing has to be spot on otherwise it needs to come out. I had to have mine removed because by the time I was seen in the hospital it had already burst. I think the only time that people pre-emptively remove appendixes is when you can't risk the chance of a burst; like if you're the over-winter physician at Amunden Scott South Pole station
surgeon here:
antibiotic treatment works great as long as there's no peritonitis and/or no appendicolith seen on CT. However, statistics show that 30% of successfully treated patients go on to get appendicitis again within 1 year.
Anyway, I offer my patients a choice. Most choose surgery. Those conscientious enough without insurance usually choose nonoperative management because it's much cheaper.
I had chronic strep and had mine removed at the recommendation of my MD Aunt and Uncle who both practice in Germany. I flew in and immediately got sick at their house. The flight must have wrecked havoc on my immune system. I could feel myself getting progressively sicker during the flight but I was completely fine at the start.
You literally imply there is one and describe it in the sibling comment reply.
Interestingly you present the possibility of a falsifiable hypothesis. Unfortunately due to the highly variable accuracy of diagnosis and propensity to treat (source: I was on The path to surgical training and now routinely diagnose appendicitis in my role as an emergency doctor) depending on health system capacity and availability to acute care the existing retrospective data doesn’t provide a satisfying result - what it does suggest is illuminating however; with a suggestion of a decrease in rate of incidence over the second half of the 20th century in industrialised countries, and a suggestion of increase in some developing countries. This would be more in keeping with an improvement in diagnostic capacity in both industrialised (less false positives) and developing (more false negatives) countries.
