A study to compare RIPASA (Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Appendicitis) and Alvarado scores in diagnosing acute appendicitis in Indian population

Abstract

Background: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies. Various clinical scoring systems have been used for early diagnosis of acute appendicitis, of which Alvarado score is the most popular but it is found to be less accurate when applied to Asian population compared to RIPASA score. Radiological modalities such as computed tomography (CT) imaging may aid in making a definite diagnosis but will inflate the cost of treatment. This study aims to compare RIPASA and Alvarado scoring system in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in our population.Methods: It was a comparative cross-sectional study done in 100 patients. RIPASA and Alvarado scores were applied to each patient. Our inclusion criteria were patients presenting with Right iliac fossa pain who subsequently underwent Appendicectomy in the same admission. Exclusion criteria included patients admitted under other specialties, those who underwent previous appendicectomy, elective appendicectomy and those not willing for the study. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of RIPASA score was 95.12% and 66.67% and that of ALVARADO score was 64.63% and 77.78%. The positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of RIPASA score was 92.86% and 75% and that of Alvarado score was 92.98% and 32.5%. The diagnostic accuracy of Alvarado and RIPASA scores were 67.0% and 90.0% respectively.Conclusions: RIPASA scoring system is more accurate and specific scoring system for our population than Alvarado in diagnosing acute appendicitis.