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Query: UMLS:C0085693 (acute appendicitis)
 3,606 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Since the middle to the end of the 80 s, the sonographic detection of diverticulitis has been increasingly improved. In a paper including a larger number of patients published in 1992, W. B. Schwerk demonstrated a high sensitivity and specificity. The detection of diverticulitis was the final entry into the chapter of acute abdominal sonography, after the diagnosis of gastrointestinal perforation, acute appendicitis and ureterolithiasis had been achieved with high reliability. Until then, diverticulitis was a classic surgical disease and a contrast enema with water-soluble contrast medium the diagnostic method of choice. Invariably, the radiologist added the well known comment: Cancer of the sigmoid colon cannot be excluded with certainty. What has changed in the 12 years after Schwerk's publication? Many internists practising sonography have discovered the sonographic diagnosis of this condition and, depending on the severity, treat the less complicated cases with intravenous antibiotics and parental nutrition or with oral antibiotics and low-ballast diet. Soon, abscesses were healed with sonographically guided aspiration and drainage. For a long time, the older generation of surgeons stayed with contrast enemas and prolonged parenteral therapy and, in case of complications, surgical interventions, though surgeons early recognized the diagnostic contribution of sonography. Influenced by radiologists and the Anglo-American literature, surgeons increasingly used computed tomography (CT) as standard method for the initial diagnostic work-up for the last five to eight years. A physician dedicated to gastrointestinal sonography cannot accept this approach, in particular, since sonography is easy and reliable, provides a reasonable differential diagnosis and was found to help the surgeons. An exception is the deep-seated diverticulitis in the sometimes barely accessible distal sigmoid colon. Furthermore, an experienced clinician will anyhow proceed to CT in any unexplained discrepancy between clinical and sonographic findings. It reflects the high value given to sonography if our surgical colleagues use this diagnostic method in the primary diagnosis of acute diverticulitis and achieve results that are as good as the results of the expensive and by all criteria more elaborate CT. The extended application of ultrasound for the omentum and in necrotic epiploic appendagitis should be mentioned here as well. Altogether, CT can be easily refrained from in 80 % to 90 % of cases with suspected diverticulitis. In view of the DRG era, this is an important argument, and emphasizes the economic role of sonography, the necessity of correct coding of sonographic procedures and the need of more sonographic training. Only quality will increase the acceptance of sonography as diagnostic tool as repeatedly demanded and presented in this journal. If this fails, it is highly likely that the diagnostic potential of sonography will remain unexploited or, under the best of circumstances, rediscovered after a 5-year expiration date in a new literature search in 10 years.
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PMID:[Sonographic diagnosis of diverticulitis: the burdensome way to acceptance]. 1536 35

Today sonography is the first line imaging method for diagnosing acute appendicitis. Experienced investigators will have an accuracy of more than 90%. Sonography can diagnose many conservatively managed diseases. The most important differential diagnoses are infectious ileocoecitis, right sided diverticulitis, appendagitis, adnexitis, ruptured or torque ovarian cysts, ectopic pregnancies. Ureterolithiasis, cholecystitis, haematomas in the psoas muscle or in the rectus muscle are rarer causes of right lower quadrant pain. Sonography can reduce the high rate of false positive clinical examinations concerning acute appendicitis. It has to be stated that an exclusion of appendicitis can only be made sonographically if the normal appendix can be seen in its full length and/or an other differential diagnosis can be depicted that explains the clinical symptoms. Mucoceles are rare cystoid lesions of the appendix. They exhibit a typical onion skin sign structure caused by different mucus viscosities. In large mucoceles a tumor causes this lesion.
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PMID:[Sonography of acute appencitis and the main differential diagnoses]. 1668 Nov 56

The differential diagnosis of right lower quadrant abdominal pain includes both ureterolithiasis and acute appendicitis. Surgical treatment can be undergone without confirmatory imaging studies after a clinical diagnosis is made. For this reason, an occult, second abdominal process may be present. A 47-year-old male presented with a three-day history of acute right lower quadrant abdominal pain. A contrast CT revealed both a 6 mm calculus obstructing the right ureter and acute appendicitis. The patient underwent appendectomy and ureteroscopy with stent placement at the same time. Simultaneous appendicitis and ureterolithiasis may present with similar clinical findings. Due to the potential risks associated with missing either diagnosis, imaging studies may be an appropriate as a step in the management of the patient with right lower quadrant pain.
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PMID:Synchronous obstructive ureterolithiasis and acute appendicitis. 2496 Aug 2

This is an unusual case of a patient presenting to the Emergency Room with right-sided abdominal pain and subsequently 2 acute diagnoses were made. The patient had both acute appendicitis and acute ureterolithiasis.
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PMID:Acute synchronous appendicitis and obstructing ureterolithiasis. 3010 73