Clinical Relevance of Modified Alvarado Score in Acute Appendicitis in Present Scenario

Introduction: Appendix is surely, the most commonlyharvested organ of the body. On looking up the literature,we found, that the negative appendectomy rates have beenconsistently maintained all through these years. Negativeappendectomy not only increases economic burden on healthcare facilities of a developing country like India, but alsohas a negative impact on the overall health of the patient.The following study was therefore, taken up to evaluate thediagnostic accuracy of the Modified Alvarado scoring systemand its ultimate effect on mortality and morbidity of the patient.Though this is an old score, but we restudied it, to revalidateas well as to promote the use of this simple, economicaland objective clinical score which actually uses establishedclinical methods, important for residents training program, toreach the diagnosis instead of the costly radiological methods.Material and methods: 50 patients presenting with thelower quadrant abdominal pain and fulfilling the inclusioncriteria were selected randomly and included in the study.Modified Alvarado Score was calculated for each one ofthem. Confirmation of the diagnosis was done after thehistopathological examination of appendix.Results: Modified Alvarado Score >7 was found in 80% (i.e.82.75% of males and 76.19% of females) of patients withappendicitis. In addition to these findings, we also got exactinformation about the age and sex distribution along withthe most common presenting complaint, the postoperativecomplications and the need for post operative stay inappendicitis patients.Conclusion: Modified Alvarado Score is a fast, simple,noninvasive, repeatable and highly economical score. Whenapplied purposefully and objectively, it can prevent delayin surgeries and hence complications as well as can reducenegative appendectomies.