

However, in population-wide studies, the rate of misdiagnosis of appendicitis remains constant. The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score or Alvarado score can help improve diagnostic accuracy.Ĭomputed tomography scan has improved diagnostic accuracy in individual studies. Right lower quadrant pain, gastrointestinal symptoms starting after the onset of pain, and a systemic inflammatory response with leukocytosis and neutrophilia, increased C-reactive protein concentration, and fever are considered diagnostic of appendicitis. The natural history of appendicitis is unclear, but it appears that progression to perforation is not predictable and that spontaneous resolution is common, suggesting that nonperforated and perforated appendicitis may, in fact, be different diseases. Lifetime risk for appendicitis is 8.6% for males and 6.7% for females, with the highest incidence in the second decade of life.

Appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies in contemporary medicine, with a yearly incidence rate of about 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.
