Abstract
Background: Abdominal pain is one of the most common complaints during pregnancy and is always debated due to its numerous differential diagnoses. Acute appendicitis is the most common complication requiring surgery during pregnancy. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate symptoms, signs, and paraclinical findings in cases of pregnancy appendectomy within 2015 - 2019. Methods: This retrospective study examined the frequency of appendectomy in pregnant women referring to Ali ibn Abi Talib Hospital of Zahedan in Iran. This study assessed 58 pregnant women who referred to Ali Ebne-e Abitaleb hospital and underwent appendectomy from April 2015 to March 2019. Finally, the data were evaluated in terms of age, gravidity, gestational age, body temperature, clinical symptoms, complications of appendectomy, type of surgery, and white blood cells (neutrophil). For data analysis, the information was entered into SPSS software (version 22). Results: In the present study, the most common symptoms and signs of patients were tenderness and right lower quadrant (RLQ) pain (87.93%), nausea (75.9%), leukocytosis (72.4%), migration of pain (65.5%), vomiting (58.6%), and anorexia (53.4%). Additionally, the most common appendicitis trimester for appendicitis in pregnancy was the second thermistor (62.1%). Conclusions: Tenderness in the RLQ area was the most important feature of appendicitis; however, nausea and leukocytosis were also common. Ultrasound was not a powerful imaging method due to the identification of less than half of the patients; nevertheless, the Alvarado score for acute appendicitis was helpful in numerous cases.