Decreased use of computed tomography with a modified clinical scoring system in diagnosis of pediatric acute appendicitis.

Hypothesis: Use of a modified clinical grading score improves accuracy in diagnosing acute appendicitis in the pediatric population while decreasing the use of computed tomography (CT).

Design: Retrospective medical records review after approval by the institutional review board. We determined the Alvarado score for each patient and correlated it with the pathological findings and imaging studies to evaluate the efficacy of CT and its attendant radiation exposure.