Factors Increasing the Likelihood of Positive Pathology among One Hundred Appendectomy Cases in Ayatollah Mousavi Hospital of Zanjan.

Background and Objective: Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of emergency surgery. Diagnosis is based on history and physical examinations. The aim of this study was to investigate some factors which increase the likelihood of positive appendicitis. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 100 patients (65 males and 35 females) with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis in Zanjan in 2010-2011. Pathology report was our Gold Standard for diagnosis. Results: On the basis of pathology reports, 85% of the patients had appendicitis. Male gender and rebound tenderness indicated an increase in the likelihood of positive appendicitis up to 3.8 and 3.08 times, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of sonography in diagnosis were 50, 83.3, 94.7 and 21.7%, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, accuracy of acute appendicitis diagnosis according to pathology results was 85%. Two factors including "male gender" and "rebound tenderness" appeared to have high diagnostic value on positive pathology. It is suggested to consider sonography as a rapid, non-invasive and available method in the diagnosis of suspicious cases of appendicitis. However, negative sonography can not rule out the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]