Objective: To verify the role of sonography in screening of acute appendicitis in patients admitted to an infectious disease unit for suspected acute infectious enteritis.
Methods: One hundred eighty consecutive patients (102 male and 78 female; age range, 5-72 years; mean age, 31 years) admitted for suspected infectious enteritis or typhoid fever were prospectively studied with abdominal sonography within 48 hours after admission. None of the patients had peritoneal irritation. Forty-six patients (25%) had white blood cell counts of more than 10,000/mm3 (range, 10,300-18,000/mm3). The diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made when a detectable appendix with an anteroposterior diameter of greater than 7 mm could be seen on sonography.
Results: Eleven (6%) of 180 patients had thickened appendixes (anteroposterior diameter range, 7-14 mm); 2 of them had periappendiceal abscesses. Four (36%) of 11 patients with acute appendicitis had high white blood cell counts. All sonographic diagnoses of acute appendicitis and periappendiceal abscesses were confirmed at surgery. Sonography ruled out acute appendicitis in 169 patients. In all of them, clinical and sonographic follow-up excluded the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Normal appendixes were shown on sonography in 38 (22%) of 169 cases and were not detectable in 131 (78%) of 169.
Conclusions: Sonography of the appendix is a useful method for early assessment of acute appendicitis in patients thought to have enteritis or typhoid fever.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.7863/jum.2003.22.9.945 | DOI Listing |
Langenbecks Arch Surg
January 2025
Department of Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Baldingerstraße, Marburg, 35043, Germany.
Purpose: Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the appendix (aNET) are rare tumors that are often diagnosed by pathology as an incidental finding after appendectomy for acute appendicitis. Several guidelines proposed risk criteria to indicate oncological completion surgery after appendectomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of proposed criteria for completion surgery of aNET.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Gastroenterol Hepatol
January 2025
Department of Surgery, Amsterdam Gastroenterology Endocrinology Metabolism, Amsterdam UMC, Location AMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Electronic address:
Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have found antibiotics to be a feasible and safe alternative to appendicectomy in adults with imaging-confirmed acute appendicitis. However, patient inclusion criteria and outcome definitions vary greatly between RCTs. We aimed to compare antibiotics with appendicectomy for the treatment of acute appendicitis using individual patient data and uniform outcome definitions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Gastroenterol Hepatol
January 2025
Department of Surgery, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Nigeria. Electronic address:
J Pediatr Surg
January 2025
Division of Pediatric Surgery, Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA; Division of Pediatric Surgery, Dept of General Surgery, UCSD School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA. Electronic address:
Background: There is no consensus on the appropriate duration of postoperative antibiotics for complicated appendicitis in children. Commonly used antibiotic endpoints include normalization of white blood cell count (WBC) or completion of a minimum number of prespecified treatment days. We compared clinical outcomes resulting from varying postoperative antibiotic protocols for complicated appendicitis in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet
January 2025
Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Background: Support for the treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis with non-operative management rather than surgery has been increasing in the literature. We aimed to investigate whether treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis with antibiotics in children is inferior to appendicectomy by comparing failure rates for the two treatments.
Methods: In this pragmatic, multicentre, parallel-group, unmasked, randomised, non-inferiority trial, children aged 5-16 years with suspected non-perforated appendicitis (based on clinical diagnosis with or without radiological diagnosis) were recruited from 11 children's hospitals in Canada, the USA, Finland, Sweden, and Singapore.
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