AB025. SOH25_AB_261. Evaluating the clinical utility of ultrasound sonography in reducing negative appendicectomy rates in paediatric patients with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis: a prospective, cohort study
Paediatric Session

AB025. SOH25_AB_261. Evaluating the clinical utility of ultrasound sonography in reducing negative appendicectomy rates in paediatric patients with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis: a prospective, cohort study

Khaled Al-Sayegh1, Matthew Davey2, Connor Colson1, Emmeline Shaw1, Chaudhry Shahbaz1

1Department of Surgery, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, Moneymore, Drogheda, Louth, Ireland; 2Department of Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Background: The World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) guidelines recommend ultrasound sonography (US) to reduce the negative appendicectomy rate in paediatric patients. The aim is to evaluate the clinical utility of US in diagnosing acute appendicitis and reducing the negative appendicectomy rates.

Methods: A prospective, single-centre cohort study was performed. Data were collected for paediatric patients (aged 16 years and younger) admitted with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis. Patients undergoing US had their imaging reports reviewed and subsequently compared to post-operative histology reports. This study had two groups: patients who underwent US preoperatively and those who did not.

Results: Overall, 28 patients were included (N=22 male, 78.6%). The mean age at diagnosis was 11 years (range: 4–16 years) and the mean duration of symptoms was 2 days (range: 1–7 days). Eighteen patients underwent US (64.3%) and 10 did not (35.7%). There was no difference in patient age, proportion of male patients, duration of symptoms, white cell count, and c-reactive protein levels between both groups (all P<0.050). In those who underwent US, 8 patients had acute appendicitis diagnosed (28.6%) and the appendix was not visualised in 8 patients (44.4%). The histology in 5 patients who underwent US was histologically negative for appendicitis (29.4%), while all 10 of those did not undergo US preoperatively had histology positive for appendicitis.

Conclusions: The provisional results of this prospective evaluation demonstrate that US has limited diagnostic value in diagnosing acute appendicitis in this small sample of paediatric patients. Recruitment to this study is ongoing with more robust results anticipated by March 2025.

Keywords: Acute appendicitis; paediatric; prospective; surgery; ultrasound

Acknowledgments

None.

Footnote

Funding: None.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-25-ab025
Cite this abstract as: Al-Sayegh K, Davey M, Colson C, Shaw E, Shahbaz C. AB025. SOH25_AB_261. Evaluating the clinical utility of ultrasound sonography in reducing negative appendicectomy rates in paediatric patients with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis: a prospective, cohort study. Mesentery Peritoneum 2025;9:AB025.

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