Comparison of diagnostic accuracy of acute appendicitis in active duty soldiers with control group

Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common cause of surgical acute Abdomen. Despite its considerable prevalence, true diagnosis of AA is very difficult in some cases. Because of indefinite clinical and laboratory findings, evaluating of AA in patient’s especially military personnel such as duty soldiers is important. In this analytic cross-sectional study, files of 455 duty soldiers suspicious to AA (cases) were compared with 142 non-duty males aged 14 to 26 years (controls) during a period of two years. Symptoms, signs and laboratory findings were compared between two groups using t-test, chi square test and one-way ANOVA. Mean age (± SE) was 20.4 ± 0.08 years, which had no statistical significant difference between cases and controls. There were no statistical significant difference between cases and controls in percentage of different symptoms and signs, quality and duration of pain, vital signs, and laboratory findings. Negative appendectomy (NA) in cases and controls were 21.7% and 16.3% respectively. It has not a statistical significant difference. In this study. There is no difference between duty soldiers and others in presentation, clinical and laboratory findings and accuracy of the diagnosis of AA. It seems that military physicians can approach duty soldiers suspicious to AA as like as other patients.