RESUMO
Background Appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergency in general surgical practices. Early and prompt diagnosis is necessary to avoid life-threatening complications associated with it. The diagnosis is mainly clinically aided by imaging techniques. The physiological obstruction of the bile flow associated with appendicular pathology leads to hyperbilirubinemia, which can be used as a predictive factor of appendicular perforation. Method This prospective study was conducted in the department of general surgery in Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital, Chennai, from January 2012 to November 2012. A total of 378 patients with the features of acute appendicitis or appendicular perforation admitted in the emergency surgical ward were included. Results Out of 378 of the study population, 18% had appendicular perforation and 82% had acute appendicitis. Out of 67 perforations, 60 patients have hyperbilirubinemia (90%) whereas out of 311 patients with appendicitis, only 89 (29%) of them had elevated bilirubin. Hyperbilirubinemia with a cutoff point of 0.9 mg% for appendicitis patients has a sensitivity of 89.6%, specificity of 71.4%, a positive predictive value of 27%, and a negative predictive value of 96.9%. Hyperbilirubinemia with a cutoff point of >1.3 mg% for appendicular perforation has a sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 89%, a positive predictive value of 93%, and a negative predictive value of 96%. Conclusions Hyperbilirubinemia with bilirubin levels more than 1.3 mg% are highly predictive of appendicular perforation and, hence, aid in prompt diagnosis. This can be combined with a clinical diagnosis and imaging for an accurate and precise diagnosis.
RESUMO
Perforators are those which connect the superficial and deep venous system either directly to main veins or indirectly through the muscular and soleal venous plexus. The emergence of minimally invasive techniques like ambulatory phlebectomy (AP) and foam sclerotherapy (FS) has led to increasing interest about the appropriate therapy for the treatment of isolated perforator incompetence. There have been no studies which have compared the effectiveness of these in-office procedures in isolated perforator incompetence due to the low prevalence of cases. The primary goal of this study is to compare the clinical parameters (return to normal activity, primary symptom relief), functional parameters (procedure time, change in disease severity, course of venous ulcer), and duplex parameters (recurrence in treated veins, complete occlusion of treated veins) in the management of leg varicosities having isolated primary perforator incompetence by ambulatory phlebectomy and duplex guided foam sclerotherapy. Though the procedure time was shorter with FS than AP, the other parameters of primary symptom relief such as change in disease severity, faster healing of venous ulcer, complete occlusion of treated veins in follow-up duplex examination, and lower recurrence of treated veins are better with AP than FS. In conclusion, the interruption of perforators is effective in decreasing the symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency and for the rapid healing of ulcers. The interruption of the incompetent perforating veins appears to be essential to decrease ambulatory venous hypertension. It is apparent from this study that ambulatory phlebectomy stands distinct with enormous benefits and serves as a superior alternative to foam sclerotherapy in treating patients with isolated perforator incompetence.
