Relationship between Triage and the Prognosis of Acute Appendicitis

  Objective  To investigate whether the triage mode influence the prognosis of acute appendicitis.

  Methods  We retrospectively analyzed the triage conditions of 98 appendicitis patients and their prognostic information. Meanwhile, their preoperative examination results and pathology were also analyzed.

  Results  Sixty-nine patients (70.41%) with acute abdominal pain were triaged at the surgical admission room. The disease onset time significantly differed among patients triaged at different admission rooms (P=0.0001). All patients had abdominal pain, and 40(40.82%) of them had migrating right low abdominal pain. All patients had right low abdominal tenderness, and 40 (40.82%) of them had rebound tenderness. Eighty-two patients (83.67%) had increased white blood cell (WBC) count. Patients admitted to the surgery department had the longest preoperative preparation time, followed by those in the department of internal medicine and department of obstetrics and gynecology, although the difference was not significant(P=0.723). The WBC count was not significantly different among patients admitted to the three departments(P=0.653). In addition, it was not significantly different between 28 patients complicated with peritonitis and 70 patients without peritonitis (P=0.648). The incidence of peritonitis in patients admitted to different departments was not significantly different(P=0.542).

  Conclusions  The departments where the patients visit do not affect the prognosis of acute appendicitis. However, the relations of prognosis with the preoperative preparation time, triage, and WBC count require more trials with larger sample sizes.