Sonography and Appendicitis in Adults: Current Status

Sonography as a means of diagnosing acute appendicitis was first described in 1986 (Puylaert 1986; Puylaert et al. 1987). Since then it has gained acceptance and with the use of high frequency probes, graded compression and colour Doppler imaging there have been many reports emphasizing an increasing role for sonography in the initial diagnostic work-up of patients with acute abdominal symptoms. Meanwhile, numerous publications have shown an increasing role for body computed tomography in this field and some papers have compared sonography with computed tomography. Computed tomography wins the battle as it does not depend on operator experience, body habitus, or the presence of gaseous interfaces (Wilson et al. 2001; Pena et al. 2000; Horton et al. 2000; Sivit et al. 2000; Wise et al. 2001).