Negative Appendectomies: Evaluating Diagnostic Imaging Techniques at General versus Pediatric Emergency Departments

Background: Although appendicitis is the most common pediatric surgical emergency, the path to diagnosis remains equivocal, with utilization of imaging modalities largely institution dependent. Objectives: Our objective was to compare imaging practices and negative appendectomy rates between patients transferred from nonpediatric hospitals to our pediatric hospital and primary patients presenting directly to our institution. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all laparoscopic appendectomy cases performed at our pediatric hospital in 2017 for imaging and histopathologic results. Two-sample z-test was used to examine negative appendectomy rates between transfer and primary patients. The negative appendectomy rates of patients who received different imaging modalities were analyzed using the Fisher's exact test. Results: Of 626 patients, 321 (51%) were transferred from nonpediatric hospitals. The negative appendectomy rate for transfer patients was 6.5% and 6.6% for primary patients (p = 0.99). Ultrasound (US) was the only imaging obtained in 31% of transfer and 82% of primary patients. The negative appendectomy rate of US performed at transfer hospitals compared with our pediatric institution was not significantly different (11% vs. 5%, p = 0.06). Computed tomography (CT) was the only imaging obtained in 34% of transfer and 5% of primary patients. Both US and CT were completed for 17% of transfer and 19% of primary patients. Conclusion: The negative appendectomy rates of transfer and primary patients were not significantly different despite more frequent CT use at nonpediatric facilities. It may be valuable to encourage US utilization at adult facilities given the potential to safely reduce CT use in the evaluation of suspected pediatric appendicitis. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Automated summary

A retrospective study compared the negative appendectomy rates between transfer and primary patients undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy at a pediatric hospital. The study found that there was no significant difference in the negative appendectomy rates between the two groups, despite more frequent use of CT scans by transfer patients at nonpediatric hospitals. Encouraging the use of ultrasound at adult facilities may help safely reduce CT utilization in the evaluation of suspected pediatric appendicitis.