Symptoms and Sign of Appendicitis
 |
appendicitis appendicitis symptoms The clinical diagnosis of appendicitis rests on a appendicitis symptoms combination of localized pain and tenderness accompanied by signs of inflammation, such as fever, leukocytosis, and elevated C-reactive protein levels. Sign of appendicitis, migration of pain from the periumbilical area to the right lower quadrant is also diagnostically significant. In the absence of signs of inflammation, the diagnosis is less certain (ie, falsely positive), and in this situation a CT scan might be of value. The best strategy in equivocal cases is to observe the patient for a period of 6 hours or more. During this time, patients with appendicitis experience increasing pain and signs of inflammation and those without appendicitis generally improve. False-positive diagnoses often involve cases where the surgeon has accorded more significance to the patient’s pain than to the presence or absence of inflammatory signs. Anorexia, nausea, and rectal tenderness are not indicative of appendicitis. During the past 15 years, the overall false-positive rate for the diagnosis of appendicitis has dropped from 15% to 10% without an accompanying rise in the number of perforations. Thus, diagnostic accuracy appears to be improving. sign of appendicitis |
