Correlation between Clinical, Sonographic and Pathologic Findings of Patients Undergoing Appendectomy

Introduction: Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of acute abdomen and is considered as a surgical emergency. Approximately, 10% of patients with acute appendicitis and delayed diagnosis can face many complications. This study was designed to examine the correlation between ultrasound and pathological findings in patients with appendicitis and aimed to determine the diagnostic levels of ultrasound in these patients. Methods: This study is a retrospective study conducted on 500 patients with clinical symptoms suggestive of appendicitis in 2010-2012 in the Ayatollah Kashani hospital. These patients have undergone appendectomy. Having collected clinical and ultrasound data and compared them with pathological results, the data were analyzed. Results: In this study, 56.3% of patients were male and 43.7% of them were female. The mean age of the study population was 24.8±14.1 years. In this study, the sensitivity of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis was 83% and its specificity was 56%. The positive predictive value of ultrasound in this study was 89.2% and the negative predictive value was 42.6%. Conclusion: Based on these results and by comparing with those of other studies, the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography in the center is acceptable and is at the similar level to other centers. Besides, the accuracy of ultrasound in the negative cases is much more than the positive ones.