ACUTE APPENDICITIS;

CLINICAL CORRELATION OF WITH HISTOPATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

Background: Acute appendicitis is the commonest cause of acute abdomen presenting in emergency room, which is mainly diagnosed on clinical grounds. Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy in patient of acute appendicitis and to review the pathological diagnosis. Material and Method: A retrospective study was conducted at PNS SHIFA hospital at Karachi; from May 2012 to April 2013. A total of 120 patients were included in the study who presented with acute abdomen and clinically diagnosed as acute appendicitis. Emergency appendectomy was done in all consecutive subjects and intra operative finding along with histo-pathological reports were compared with clinical diagnosis. Results: A total of 120 patients were included in the study who underwent appendicectomy during this period. The majority of our patients were in the age group between 15-30 years (66.5%) and presented within 24 h of onset of symptoms. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain (100%), vomiting (57.4%) and anorexia (49.0%). Pyrexia was noted in 41.0%.Localized abdominal tenderness with positive release sign was mainly present. The most common incision was gridiron (57.2%) followed by Lanz (37.3%) and in remaining Rutherford Morrison incision was made. Acute appendiceal inflammation and gangrenous appendicitis was present in 67% and 13%, respectively. The perforation rate was 5.0% and there was a direct correlation with time of presentation. There were no patients with carcinoid tumour or adenocarcinoma. Parasites and other associated conditions were seen in 3 % of cases. On the basis of histo-pathological report, 84% were found to have acute appendicitis with negative appendicectomy rate of 16.0%. Conclusions: Clinical surgical skill is good enough to diagnose acute appendicitis but auxiliary diagnostic tools can help to elevate the diagnostic accuracy,but these are not 100% accurate and at times may not be available.So clinial good judgement is essential for proper diagnosis and that can be confirmed by histopathology report.