Acute appendicitis is one of the most common cause of acute abdominal pain. It is relative difficulty in diagnosis, especially in children, old-aged patients and women of reproductive period. The appendectomy is relative simple procedure but can
be
dangerous in surgical risk patients. There are little diagnostic procedures in acute appendicitis, but barium emena is one of them. But generally speaking, performing of barium enema in patient of acute appendicitis is dangerous because of the
perforation of the inflammated appendix and barium leakage through pertorated appendix.
In order to evaluate the role of barium enema to making of diagnosis of acute appendicitis and the safety of the procedure, the barium enema was performed in 61 cases who were clinically suspected acute appendicitis. The baium was brought to the
terminal ileum under fluoroscopic guidence by gravity technique. Non-filling of the appendix with the barium was 45 cases, and 41 cases were explorated and 38 cases were acute appendicitis and periappendiceal abscess.
Partial filling was seen in 8 cases, 4 cases were explorated and 3 cases were acute appendicitis. Among 8 cases of complete filling of the appendix with the barium, none of them had acute appendicitis.
The sensitivity of the diagnostic barium enema in cases of non-filling appendix is 84.5%, and in cases of partial filling, the sensitivity is 37.5%. The specificity is 100% and normal appendectomy is 8.9%.
There was no complication related to barium enema procedure, such as perforation, leakage, barium appendicitis, in all cases including 5 cases of acute perforated appendicitis and 6 cases of appendicitis with periappendiceal abscess.
The barium enema is valuable and safe procedure in diagnsing acute appendicitis and confirming study especially in operation-risk patients.
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