DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i06.035

Pages: 2045-2047

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common diagnoses in the emergency department in pediatric patients. The aim of the study is to measure the incidence and prevalence of acute appendicitis at Khartoum north teaching hospital pediatric surgical department. Our study included patients who were admitted to pediatric emergency department at Khartoum north teaching hospital who diagnosed with acute appendicitis both male and female, recording their presenting symptoms and signs, operative findings, complications of acute appendicitis and hospital stay.Among 142 patients, male gender was predominant (n=87)61.3% and female was (n=55)38.7%, with the mean age of study group 10.1±7.95, male to female ratio was 1.5:1. The common age group of presentation was 10 years of age (n=32) 22.5%. Common complications of acute appendicitis were appendicular mass (n=77) 54.2% and perforated appendix (n=27) 19.1%. The most common site of the appendix intra-operatively was Retrocaecal (n=105) 73.9% and most common complications intra-operatively was Caecal injury (n=2)1.4%. Acute appendicitis is the most common presenting diagnosis in pediatric patients in which the diagnosis was reached clinically and the risk of complications increases whenever the duration of symptoms increases.