When the Appendix Is Not Seen on Ultrasound for Right Lower Quadrant Pain: Does the Interpretation of Emergency Department Physicians Correlate With Diagnostic Performance?

A survey was administered to 166 academic emergency department (ED) physicians to determine their interpretation and practice after receiving an ultrasound (US) report with nonvisualization of the appendix (NVA). Annual incidence of reported NVA from 2 academic hospitals was calculated for 2002-2013. A retrospective review of the same hospitals revealed that 291 (17.