Introduction:

Acute appendicitis is the leading cause of abdominal surgical emergencies in pediatrics. Between 30% and 75% of cases progress to perforated appendicitis; however, timely diagnosis before perforation occurs remains a challenge.

Objective:

To identify predictive factors for perforated appendicitis in a pediatric population (<18 years) at the time of admission to the emergency department.

Materials and methods:

Prospective cohort study conducted in 193 patients (perforated appendicitis=98; non-perforated appendicitis=95) admitted to the emergency department of a pediatric referral hospital in Bogotá D.C., or referred to such hospital, who underwent appendectomy between November 1 and December 31, 2013. Bivariate analyses were performed (Student's t-tests, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square or Fisher's exact), calculating the odds ratios (OR) with their respective 95%CI. In the multivariate analysis (logistic regression), the stepwise regression method was used to select variables according to their statistical significance, and regression models were performed. The explanatory power of the models was verified by calculating the areas under the ROC curve.

Results:

The mean age of the participants was 9.8 years, and the prevalence of perforated appendicitis was 50.78%. The following predictive factors for perforated appendicitis were identified in the multivariate analysis: presence of emesis on admission to the emergency department (OR=4.28, 95%CI: 1.63-11.21), presence of tachycardia on physical examination (OR=3.38, 95%CI:1.69-6.59), temperature >38.3°C on physical examination (OR=3.36, 95%CI: 1.29-8.70), and duration of symptoms until surgery (OR=1.95, 95%CI: 1.37-2.77).

Conclusions:

In the present study, duration of symptoms until surgery, presence of emesis during questioning on admission to the emergency department, and presence of tachycardia and fever (>38.3°) on physical examination behaved as predictive factors for acute perforated appendicitis in pediatric patients.

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