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Use of an appendicitis medical information sheet in the pediatric primary care system
Author(s) -
Oyachi Noboru,
Yagasaki Hideaki,
Suzuki Takeyuki,
Higashida Kosuke,
Komai Takayuki,
Hasuda Norio,
Takano Kunio,
Obana Kazuko
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
pediatrics international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1442-200X
pISSN - 1328-8067
DOI - 10.1111/ped.12971
Subject(s) - medicine , referral , appendicitis , medical history , pediatrics , primary care , medical diagnosis , physical examination , general surgery , emergency medicine , medical emergency , surgery , family medicine , radiology
Background Accurate and prompt diagnosis is required for the primary evaluation of pediatric appendicitis. Among pediatricians and surgeons working in Yamanashi Prefecture, the pediatric appendicitis medical information (PAMI) sheet was edited in April 2011 to reflect the diagnostic results of the pediatric primary and emergency medical service and used as a referral document for surgical consultation to secondary hospitals. Methods The PAMI sheet consisted of sections for history taking, symptoms, physical signs and laboratory findings without a scoring system. For 32 consecutive months starting in April 2011, 59 patients hospitalized for suspected appendicitis were retrospectively reviewed. In particular, a total of 17 referral patients evaluated with the PAMI sheet were assessed in order to evaluate the utility of the form. Results The pediatric surgeons were able to easily determine patient condition from the PAMI sheet. In total, 13 of 17 patients had appendicitis. According to the physical findings of the 17 studied patients, the judgment of right lower quadrant tenderness (κ = 0.63) and guarding (κ = 1.00) was consistent between the pediatric surgeons and primary attending pediatricians. Conclusions The PAMI sheet aids in the collection of detailed history and objective data with a high level of accuracy, and provides useful referral diagnostic information to the secondary‐level hospitals.