Accuracy of Surgeon's Intraoperation Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis, Compared with the Histopathology Results.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of surgeons' intraoperative diagnosis in open appendectomy and compare it with the histopathology examination results afterwards.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional retrospective study accomplished in Namazee hospital affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, in a one-year period from 2007 to 2008. Medical charts of all the patients who were admitted with impression of acute appendicitis and underwent open appendectomy in our center were included. Demographic information, intraoperative findings as in the operation note based on a method used by our  surgeons, and histopathology examination  of the removed appendix were recorded and reported.

Results: A total of 342 patients were studied including 229 (67%) males and 113 (33%) females, with the mean age of 16.02 ± 9.89 (range 3 to 76) years, with a large proportion from 10 to 15 years. Surgeons reported 97.4% of the patients to have acute appendicitis, 29.5%, 10.2% and  5.6% with severe, moderate  and  mild inflammation  respectively, whereas 26.6%  and 9.4% with suppurated  and gangrenous  appendicitis  separately, 14.6% to  have perforated appendicitis and only 1.5%hadperforated appendicitis with peritonitis. However, 79.5% of cases showed appendicitis in the histopathology review. The accuracy of surgeons' intraoperative diagnosis is 81.6%, 85.2% for men and 72.6% for women.

Conclusion: The method used by our surgeon is not completely indicative in mild to severe inflamed appendix but it is almost always compatible with the pathology results in suppurated, gangrened, and perforated appendix. Therefore surgeons' gross observation of the  inflamed appendix  may not  always be in  concordance  with the  histopathology examination of the resected appendix.