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Ultrasonography-First Imaging Algorithm For Acute Appendicitis Diagnosis, Steven Lamar Moore

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common cause of acute abdominal pain requiring surgery in pediatric, adult, and pregnant patients. Several etiologies are believed to trigger luminal obstruction, which causes mucus and bacteria proliferation, resulting in inflammation and wall tension with subsequent necrosis and rupture of the appendix. Most AA patients present with the primary complaint of abdominal pain, which Murphy first described the characteristic diagnostic sequence seen in approximately 50% of patients as colicky centralized abdominal pain with subsequent vomiting with the migration of pain to the right lower quadrant (RLQ), specifically, the right iliac fossa. The typical AA …