No abstract

BACKGROUNDAppendicitis is one of the commonest surgical emergencies with a lifetime risk of 7-8%. The appendicectomy specimens operated upon clinically-suspected appendicitis often appear normal on gross examination, but histopathological evaluation may reveal a diverse underlying pathology. Therefore, for accurate diagnosis, histopathological examination of all appendicectomy specimens is mandatory.

Inclusion Criteria: The adult patients of both sexes presenting with pain in the abdomen with tenderness in the right iliac fossa were included in the study. ABSTRACTBackground: Acute appendicitis even today remains the commonest cause of acute abdomen needing surgical intervention. In developing countries the clinical diagnosis still poses a challenge to the surgeon and advanced radiological investigations are not cost effective while histopathological diagnosis remains the gold standard. The Modified Alvarado score augments the accuracy of diagnosis of appendicitis thus reducing the rate of negative appendicectomy. Methods:Patients admitted with clinical findings suggestive of Acute appendicitis were evaluated by applying Modified Alvarado scoring system.Those patients with Alvarado scores above 5 were subjected to appendicectomy. The Modified Alvarado score was correlated with that of histopathologial features of appendicectomy specimens. Results:The histopathological features of appendicitis was seen in 87.8% of the cases whose scores were more than 7 while negative appendicitis was seen in 38.1% whose scores were between 5-7.The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of Alvarado scores in our study were 87.80%, 38.01%, 73.50% and 61.50% respectively. Conclusions:The study concludes that the Modified Alvarado scoring system is more sensitive in diagnosing acute appendicitis with reference to the histopathological findings.