Ultrasound Evaluation of Non-Perforated and Perforated Appendicitis

Background: Ultrasonography (USG) of abdomen remains one of the commonly asked investigations by the surgeon in patients with suspected acute abdomen. The advantage of USG over other radiological investigation is that it is easily available, cost effective, portable, no known side effects, non-invasive and requires minimal patient preparation for carrying out the examination. The present study aimed at evaluating ultrasonography findings of appendicitis and to correlate with operative and histo-pathological findings. Material and Methods: In our study, USG evaluation was done by the investigators for 61 clinically diagnosed patients, so as to achieve 50 radiologically confirmed appendicitis cases which was the required sample. The study was carried out from December 2013 to September 2015. Data was analysed using the statistical software SPSS version 21.0. Chi Square test was applied to test statistically significant difference in proportion. Results: In the present study the mean age the study participants was 26.42 years. Majority of the study participants were males 29 (58%) while females represented 42%.The average size of the appendix among the study participants was observed to be 7.08 mm with a standard deviation of ± 1.07 mm. Among all the study participants with acute appendicitis in our study 22% of the patients had perforation of appendix. In our study, we proved that all USG diagnosed appendicitis cases (100%) were histo-pathologically correct but the variations found in diagnosing the perforation status. We found that the USG had 73.33% and 100% sensitivity and specificity in finding the perforation status.