Is There Any Association Between the Efficacy of Imaging Techniques and the Age of the Patient in the Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis?

Acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the most common causes that requires an operation in patients visiting hospital with an abdominal pain (1). These cases are usually seen in patients under 50 years of age and peak in the second and third decades (2). The developments in imaging methods that support the diagnosis of AA have reduced the number of patients who were operated unnecessarily and shortened the waiting period in the complicated cases before surgery. Although this is such a common case about which many studies have been done, there are still debates about the diagnostic methods for AA. Ultrasonography (US) and computerized tomography (CT) are the two basic imaging modalities used in AA; they are still the most important and valid diagnostic tools. Even though CT is considered more successful for diagnosis in many studies, we can never abandon US because of the radiation exposure aspect of CT (3, 4). To determine the imaging method that is used during diagnosis according to patient history and symptoms will also increase the effectiveness of the method. In this study, selected imaging modalities in the diagnostic process of cases operated on the basis of an AA diagnosis and whose histopathologic examinations were compatible with AA were retrospectively reviewed. The aim of this study was to examine whether