Inconclusive abdominal CT findings in pediatric patients with appendicitis: Lessons from negative appendectomy cases

초록

Purpose: Although abdominal computed tomography (ACT) has high sensitivity and specificity in helping to detect appendicitis in pediatric patients, diagnostic challenges still exist for some cases despite undergoing ACT, and negative appendectomies still persist. The aim of this study was to elucidate some ACT findings that support true appendicitis for patients who had inconclusive preoperative ACT findings. Patients and methods: For the 49 patients whose preoperative ACT diagnoses were inconclusive (ten negative appendicitis; 39 true appendicitis), the ACT findings were retrospectively measured for the following features: appendiceal enlargement, presence of appendicolith or hyperdense materials in the appendix, periappendiceal fat inflammation, periappendiceal fluid collection, appendiceal wall thickening, appendiceal gas, and right lower quadrant lymphadenopathy. These features were compared between true appendicitis and negative appendicitis cases. Results: The presence of an enlarged appendix of diameter. 8 mm or periappendiceal fat inflammation strongly correlated with true appendicitis, while the absence of appendiceal wall thickening or mesenteric lymphadenopathy correlated with negative appendicitis. Conclusion: If the ACT findings were inconclusive for patients suspected of having appendicitis, factors such as periappendiceal fat inflammation, an enlarged appendix, appendiceal wall thickening, and mesenteric lymphadenopathy should be cautiously assessed to discriminate true appendicitis from negative appendicitis. © 2016 Kim and Moon.

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