Diagnosis of acute appendicitis: Current criteria

INTRODUCTION: The aim of present paper was to identify some features related to preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis, according the selected variables, as well as to establish comparisons with findings from other authors. METHODS: We made a prospective, descriptive and observational study of 560 patients operated on and discharged with the histopathology diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Patients were seen in General Surgery Service of the 'Saturnino Lora' Teaching Provincial Hospital of Santiago de Cuba during year 2006. RESULTS: Among the more significant results were the predominance of young males with a mean age of 25,2 years, and the preponderance of the clinical diagnosis. Mean time of preoperative course was greater in men, and there was a predominance of gangrenous and perforated varieties, although the primacy was for the suppurative appendicitis. In the deceased ones the more severe pathologic histology ways were detected, and these were elderlies presenting with atypical clinical manifestations of disease. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical method has nowadays is of capital significance, since thorough it is possible early to diagnose this so common urgency, and to reduce the preoperative course time, whose length is cause of a unnecessary morbidity and mortality. (author)