CT Lessens Need For Appendectomy

For the study, the investigators assessed 663 patients who were scanned with CT for suspected appendicitis. An appendectomy procedure was done on 268 of the CT-screened patients. Of these patients, only eight (3%) had a negative appendectomy.

"Prior to CT, the negative appendectomy rate was 20% because there was no way to be sure whether appendicitis was present or not in most patients without surgery. Because CT is very accurate in imaging the appendix and because CT is very good at finding other conditions which mimic appendicitis, the negative appendectomy rate following CT has fallen dramatically. Fewer people are having to undergo appendectomy because CT can find the normal appendix and can frequently determine what is wrong prior to surgery,” said James T. Rhea, M.D., lead author of the study at MGH, who is now at San Francisco General Hospital (CA, USA).

According to the researchers, if a patient is thought to have appendicitis, CT can help diagnose prior to surgery whether appendicitis is present or whether something else other than appendicitis is causing the patient's pain. "The patient's doctor should decide if CT is needed to increase the certainty that appendicitis is present or if something else is causing the problem, but in most patients CT will be helpful in deciding whether to remove the appendix. I know that if I had symptoms that might be appendicitis, I'd want to have a CT scan,” said Dr. Rhea.

The study was published in the June 2005 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.




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