Advances in the Diagnosis and Management of Appendicitis in Children

Abstract

Appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in childhood and among all pediatric surgical conditions, it is associated with the greatest relative burden of hospital cost, surgical site infections, hospital revisits, and antibiotic treatment days [1–3]. Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the ability to diagnose appendicitis while minimizing the need for ionizing radiation. These have included strategies to improve the diagnostic quality of ultrasound (US), leveraging the combined predictive value of multiple sources of diagnostic data, and use of multidisciplinary clinical pathways.