"Emergency appendectomies?" Are there any other kind?!

"Emergency appendectomies?" Are there any other kind?

Headline on Yahoo! today: "Jimmy Kimmel undergoes emergency appendectomy" Whenever someone has to have their appendix removed, isn't always an emergency? Would someone ever have an elective appendectomy? I've had my appendix out too, and yes, it was an emergency. So why do we have to always describe this operation like that?

4 weeks ago
Interesting answer from the RN, but it's not true that only surgery for a burst appendix qualifies as an emergency, right? Myself, and others I know, did not have a burst appendix, yet had emergency surgery...

If an appendix is "hot" it can rupture and eventually cause death if untreated. I have never seen an elective appendectomy in my 10 years of nursing, nor have I heard of one. Unless it is being removed during a bowel resection, (which isn't usually elective either), it would be an emergency.