SCORE FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS

Scoring systems seem to be ideal for supporting diagnosis of acute app endicitis because they are non invasive, require no special equipment and can be used in clinical routine. Several scores for appendicitis h ave been developed with good results in the original publications. Unf ortunately these good results could not be reproduced on a German data base. Therefore we developed a new score using multivariate statistic s and a quality controlled prospective data base. The score covers 8 v ariables: tenderness, rebound tenderness, micturition, type of pain, l eucocytes, age, relocation of pain, rigidity. Independent evaluation o f the score on a Dutch database resulted in a negative appendicectomy rate of 21 % and a missing appendicitis rate of 2 %. The results are e ncouraging, so that further testing and clinical application can be re commended.