ACUTE APPENDICITIS: MOST COMMON CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND CAUSATIVE MICROORGANISM

Acute Appendicitis

Abstract

Objective: To determine the most common clinical presentation and causative microorganism for acute appendicitis.
Study Design: Descriptive.
Place and duration of study: Department of Surgery, Combined Military Hospital Multan, from June 2002 to May 2004.
Patients and Methods: Clinical features of all the patients, older than 5 years of age diagnosed with acute appendicitis were recorded. Patients presented with other pathology which mimic acute appendicitis were excluded from the study. Surgery was done under general anaesthesia. Appendices of all the patient as well as pus swabs from abdominal cavity were sent to the laboratory for histopathology and microbiological cultures to confirm the diagnoses of acute appendicitis and causative organism.
Results: The mean age of 75 subjects was 32.56 ± 11.93 years. The most common symptom was pain in right iliac fossa (80 % cases) and the most common physical sign was tenderness (92% cases). Some of the patients(9.3%) had a histologically normal appendix. Maximum isolates on culture were E. coli.
Conclusion: The most common presentation of acute appendicitis was pain in right iliac fossa while the most sensitive sign was tenderness. Proper history and sharp clinical examination is the key to diagnosis. The most frequent organism of appendicitis was Escherichia Coli.