Comparison of Alvarado score and ultrasonography in diagnosis of acute appendicitis

Abstract

Background: Appendicitis is a common cause of acute abdomen in all age groups and a simple appendicitis can progress to perforation which is associated with much higher morbidity and mortality. Acute appendicitis is the most common surgical condition and appendectomy is the most common operation done on emergency basis. This study aims at studying diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography and Alvarado score for acute appendicitis and decreasing the negative appendectomy rate in cost effective manner. Methods: In all 200 patients suspected to have acute appendicitis were examined and evaluated with modified Alvarado scoring and ultrasonography. Accuracy of alvarado scoring and ultrasonography in diagnosing acute appendicitis was calculated after correlating with the histopathological finding. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnosis i.e modified alvarado scoring and ultrasonography were 89.17, 44.44 and 94.26, 88.88 respectively. Conclusion: The diagnostic accuracy of clinical diagnosis was 84.57 and that of ultrasonography was 88%. Thus ultrasonography may be suggested as a useful diagnostic method for acute appendicitis . However the difference in their diagnostic values is not statistically significant.