Diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis by Alvarado scoring with ultrasonography as supportive tool

Abstract

Background: Acute appendicitis remains as one of the most common surgical entity requiring early intervention. Delay in management results in complications and misdiagnosis results in negative appendectomy. Hence there is always a need to develop a well-designed protocol for diagnosis and to reduce negative appendectomy. Alvarado score for diagnosis of acute appendicitis is an easy, affordable and diagnostic which has been evaluated early with variable reports. In cases with equivocal score, additional tools like sonography may provide a reliable result in accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Objective of the study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of Alvarado score and ultrasonography in diagnosis of acute appendicitis. To determine the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of ultrasonography in cases operated with histopathological correlation.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at our hospital by department of general surgery for a period of six months. All suspected cases of appendicitis were scored by Alvarado score and cases with>5 were performed additional USG for further evaluation. All the cases of appendicitis that underwent surgery were further confirmed by histopathological correlation with USG and clinical Alvarado score.Results: A total of 200 cases were enrolled with male predominance (57.5%) and mean age of study group was 34.26±8.64 years and male to female ratio of 1.3:1.69% of cases presented with Alvarado score of 7 and above, while 21% of cases with 5-6. Migratory pain in RIF was the commonest symptom and tenderness RIF was the most common sign.160 cases (80%) were operated totally with 75% cases lap appendectomy and 25% cases by open appendectomy. USG was performed on 160 cases and 146 were positive and 14 were negative whereas histopathologically 142 cases were confirmed as Acute appendicitis. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of USG is 97.18%, 55.56%, 94.52% and 71.43%. The accuracy of USG is 92.5.Conclusions: Acute appendicitis is first and foremost a clinical diagnosis with scoring systems and imaging being necessary adjuncts in equivocal cases. USG is an easily available tool in diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Application of USG as adjunct tool to Alvarado scoring improves the diagnostic accuracy.