A Comparative study between Alvarado Score and Adult Appendicitis Score in Patients with right Lower Quadrant Pain for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis

Abstract

Objectives: Acute appendicitis is a typical surgical emergency. This study compared the two scoring systems most commonly utilized to diagnose acute appendicitis. Material and Methods: This was a prospective comparative study comprising 120 patients presenting with right lower abdominal pain in our hospital’s emergency or outpatient department. Patients with Adult Appendicitis Score (AAS) ≥16 or Alvarado Score (AS) ≥9 were considered for surgical intervention. Histopathological confirmation of appendicitis was taken as the confirmatory endpoint. Results: On analysis, 71 (88.75%) and 68 (88.31%) patients had positive surgical findings as per AAS and AS, respectively. Similarly, 70 (87.50%) were correctly detected as acute appendicitis by AAS, whereas 67 (87.01%) patients were rightly seen as acute appendicitis by AS. The results were compared with histopathological findings. The area under the ROC curve for AAS was 0.930 compared to 0.921 for AS, indicating that AAS was a slightly better predictor for appendicitis. Conclusion: The AAS was slightly more accurate than the AS in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.