Evaluation of the Management of Acute Appendicitis Before Emergency Department in Children: a Prospective Study

• Conditions: Appendicitis

• Registration Number: NCT04885335
• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital, Limoges

Brief Summary

Acute appendicitis is the first visceral surgical emergency in pediatrics with about 30,000 cases in children having been described in France.

It concerns 0.3% of children under 15 with a maximum frequency between 8 and 13 years of age. Acute appendicitis has a significant morbidity rate of 8% and a mortality rate under 0.1%.

10 to 25% of the children admitted to emergency rooms for abdominal pain have appendicitis.

In 20 to 30% of the cases, the initial symptoms are atypical, which explains the difficulty in diagnosing.

The purpose of our study is to evaluate the quality of general practitioners in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis, its severity and the diagnostic criteria used.

Furthermore, it is not as easy to evaluate pain or examine a complaint in children as it is in adults.

Appendicectomy is the treatment of choice for all acute appendicitis. The importance of early diagnosis and treatment is, therefore, essential. Many predictive diagnostic scores have been studied over the years. The Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) using typical symptoms of acute appendicitis and biological items was published in 2002. Nowadays, it is still considered as a reference and has been validated by other studies.

Most of the patients suffering from abdominal pain first consult their general practitioner.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2021-05
• Study First Submitted: 2021-05-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-05-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-05-09
• Study First Posted: 2021-05-13
• Last Update Posted: 2021-05-13
• Study Start: 2021-06-01
• Primary Completion: 2022-02-01
• Study Completion: 2022-06-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 11

Inclusion Criteria

• Child <16 years
• abdominal symptoms
• consulting in the pediatric emergency department of Limoges University center.

Exclusion Criteria

• Child >=16 years

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
PAS score	At 5 month	Score ≤ 5: appendicitis unlikely. Score ≥ 6: probable appendicitis. Score ≥ 7: very probable appendicitis

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Surgery for appendicitis	At 5 month

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Pediatric emergency department; 🇫🇷 Limoges, France