A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY TO ASSESS THE ROLE OF ULTRASOUND IN ACUTE APPENDICITIS

Vivek Kumar Garg and Manjula Sharma*

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study of 120 patients for a period of 8 months from March 2021 to October 2021 in the department of Radiodiagnosis, NSCB, Zonal Hospital, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. Patients with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis and posted for appendicectomy were included in this study. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS 20 software. All the necessary investigations and prior consents were taken before the ultrasounds. Results: 120 patients were included in the study, including 72 male patients (60%) and 48 female patients (40%). Mean age of the group was 29(21- 64 years) years. Sensitivity, specificity, Positive predictive value(PPV), Negative predictive value(NPV) and diagnostic accuracy calculated were, 85.94%, 91.07%, 91.67%, 85.00% and 88.33% respectively. Conclusion: This study firmly concluded that, ultrasound is a very valuable tool in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and to rule out associated complications. Liberal use of ultrasound by the radiologist can exclude negative laparotomies associated with acute appendicitis.

Keywords: Acute appendicitis, ultrasonography, appendicectomy, negative appendicectomy rates.