Appendicitis, the most common surgical emergency in children has been difficult to diagnose, but a new urine test shows promise in improving diagnosis and reducing unnecessary surgeries and appendix ruptures.
The results can be found in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
"We found a biomarker in the urine of appendicitis patients, even in two patients whose imaging studies looked normal," said Richard Bachur, MD of Children's Hospital in Boston, Mass. "This could be a big step forward in the practice of pediatric emergency medicine, especially because urine is so easy to obtain."
Researchers studied urine from 67 patients, median age 11, 37 percent of whom had appendicitis. All of the patients diagnosed with appendicitis underwent appendectomies; 16 percent of the removed appendixes had perforated.
Once an appendix has perforated or ruptured, complications can ensue such an infection requiring lengthy hospitalization. Currently, three to 30 percent of appendectomies are found to be unnecessary, while 30 to 45 percent of appendicitis cases take so long to diagnose that the appendix ruptures.
