Comparison of Three Clinical Trials of Preoperative Predictors for Complicated Appendicitis

We previously reported three items that preoperatively predicted complicated appendicitis (body temperature, C-reactive protein, and fluid retention around the appendix). In this study, we aimed to compare other predictors to confirm the usefulness of our predictors with those of previous reports on the items as predictors of complicated appendicitis preoperatively (criteria A which consist of 8 items, criteria B which consist of 7 items).

We retrospectively evaluated 417 adult patients who underwent surgery for acute appendicitis between January 2013 and December 2019 and compared our items with criteria A and criteria B according to the results of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), homogeneity, discriminatory ability, and Akaike information criterion (AIC).

The AUC for the sensitivity to diagnose complicated appendicitis according to according to our criteria, as well as criteria A, and criteria B was 0.823, 0.839, and 0.856, respectively. The discriminatory ability linear trend χ² of our criteria and those of criteria A and B were 128.9, 121.1, and 142.5, respectively. The homogeneity likelihood ratios χ² calculated using the Cox regression model, which indicate homogeneity, were 146.4, 143.6, and 172.8, respectively. The AIC of each criterion was 397.0, 345.8, and 369.0, respectively.

Although the criteria B were the best, it was possible to predict complicated appendicitis preoperatively by all criteria. Above all, our criteria have only three items, therefore they have the advantage of making it possible to make decisions quickly with a certain degree of accuracy, regardless of the degree of experience.