Scan role in diagnosing acute appendicitis

Abstract

Acute appendicitis is one of the commonest surgical diseases. It can rapidly progress to severe complications, like perforation and peritonitis. Consequently, surgeons often prefer to operate as soon as there is, clinically, a probable diagnosis, even if such a decision results in the ablation of up to 30% of normal appendixes. Many diagnostic methods have been proposed with the aim of decreasing the number of appendectomies in patients without appendicitis: ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, laparoscopy. In particular, ultrasonography has the advantage of being less expensive, widely available, and non-invasive; furthermore, it has demonstrated a diagnostic accuracy of 70-95%. However, its use needs further evaluation with respect to the best way to integrate it with clinical and laboratory data, in order to correctly identify a patient with suspected acute appendicitis. The aim of our study is to show our experience with ultrasonographic diagnosis of acute appendicitis, acquired by surgeons with specific sonographic expertise.