Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical conditions of abdomen, but the correct diagnosis prior to operation is note easy. Historically it has been ruled that the normal appendix rate in operation should be expected to be 5-25%. Therefore, the necessity for the objective diagnostic method has been advocated in order to reduce the negative appendectomy, which might be resulted in the risk of perforation.
According to author´s experience, the high resolution ultrasonography is considered to be the choice of diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Author performed the graded compression method of the high resolution ultrasonography in 51 patients who had the clinical suggestions of acute appendicitis prior to the final diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic availability of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis for saving the patients from unnecessary appendectomy and for reducing the morbidity.
The results of author´s study were as follows:
1. 39 of 51 patients were confirmed as acute appendicitis by surgery and 34 patients among them were coreectly diagnosed to be inflamed appendix by ultrasonography.
2. The configuration of the inflammed appendix in ultrasonography was variable according to the degree of severity of inflammation and its luminal content.
3. The rate of negative appendectomy could be reduced to zero by the correlation of ultrasonography with the clinical data.
4. Overall sensitivity, specifity and accuracy were 92% each.
Upon the above results, author can be able to conclude that ultrasonographic diagnosis of acute appendicitis was considered to be more sensitive and acurate than other diagnostic modalities such as the clinical symptoms and laboratory findings in the detection of acute appendicitis. And the ultrasonography in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be applied as a simple, noninvasive and accurate method if there is some doubt whether appendectomy is indicated.
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