• Eur Surg Res · Jan 2008

    CT scan in patients with suspected appendicitis: clinical implications for the acute care surgeon.

    • M Petrosyan, J Estrada, S Chan, S Somers, W N Yacoub, R L Kelso, and R J Mason.
    • Division of Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California and Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif., USA.
    • Eur Surg Res. 2008 Jan 1;40(2):211-9.

    ObjectiveTo determine the influence of computed tomography (CT) scans on diagnosis and management of patients with suspected appendicitis.MethodsRetrospective 2-year review of 1,630 patients with suspected appendicitis, categorized into three groups based on the likelihood (Alvarado scores) of having appendicitis. Group 1: low likelihood (Alvarado score < or =4); group 2: intermediate likelihood (Alvarado scores 5-7), and group 3: high likelihood (Alvarado score > or = 8). CT scan utilization, hospital course, and final pathology were retrospectively reviewed.ResultsMore patients received a CT scan in 2006 as compared with 2005 (60 vs. 52%; p = 0.001). The overall appendectomy rate was similar between the 2 years (57% in 2005 vs. 57% in 2006; p = 0.995). The overall appendectomy rate in patients with a CT was significantly higher as compared with those without (60 vs. 53%; p = 0.002). The appendectomy rate in patients with Alvarado scores < or =4 and no CT scan was significantly lower than in those with a CT scan (12 vs. 48%; p < 0.0001). The overall negative appendectomy rate in patients with a CT scan was similar to that in those without: 31/546 (6%) vs. 23/383 (6%).ConclusionsCT scan utilization increased the appendectomy rate only in patients with a low clinical suspicion for appendicitis. Preoperative CT scans did not decrease the negative appendectomy rate.Copyright 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,694,794 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.