Publication:

Clinico-pathological and etiological evaluation of acute appendicitis and assessment of significance of laboratory and ultrasonography examination as an ancillary aid to clinical diagnosis

Background Timely diagnosis and intervention of acute appendicitis reduces morbidity and mortality associated with the disease condition. The study aimed to evaluate the etiology of acute appendicitis, to analyze the sensitivity of modified Alvarado scoring system and radiology in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and to correlate the observations of laboratory tests, operative findings with the histopathological report of specimen of appendix.

Methods This was a prospective study done on 100 patients with clinical symptoms of acute right lower abdominal pain suggestive of appendicular origin during the period from February 2015 to January 2016 in the department of surgery thorough clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, ultrasound findings as were done for all patients. After confirming the diagnosis of AA the patients had operative intervention and specimens were sent for histopathological study.

Results Male preponderance was seen in the study. Majority of them belongs to 21 to 30 years age group (50%). Faecolith was the most common etiological factor observed (58%). Abdominal pain (100%) was the most common clinical symptom. Alvarado score had sensitivity of 95.74% and specificity of 66.67% in diagnosing AA. In correlation to histopathological findings, ultrasonography findings showed 100% positive visualization rate in all 71 cases. Elevated ESR (94%) had high diagnostic accuracy as confirmed by HPE finding (96.81%) which is statistically significant (p<0.000).

Conclusions Alvarado scoring system, elevated ESR levels and USG findings of the appendix can be considered as adjuncts to clinically diagnose the AA, to improve the diagnostic accuracy thereby consequently the rate of negative appendicectomy can be reduced and thus decreases the complication rates.