Abstract
Background: Appendicitis is a universal gastrointestinal disorder with a high incidence among adolescents and children. The treatment of choice among most of the cases is appendectomy that depends on a correct diagnosis. this study aim to assessing the prevalence, diagnosis and management of appendicitis at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) from 2015-2019.
Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at KAUH, the data were collected using the medical records (Phoenix) of the 341 cases who were diagnosed with acute appendicitis from January 2015 to January 2019. The collected variables included patient’s demographics, vital signs, clinical presentation, Alvarado score, laboratory tests, imaging, surgery notes, histopathology results, duration of hospitalization and outcomes as well as the duration of post-operative antibiotic intake.
Results: A total of 341 appendectomy patients were included, 212 (62.2%) of them were males. About 302 cases were diagnosed as acute appendicitis cases that were confirmed by histopathology. The chief complaint among most of the subjects (97.1%) was abdominal pain. About 34.6% and 41.9% were identified using abdominal ultra-sonogram and abdominal CT respectively. Most of the subjects were stable after the surgery and the length of hospital stay for the majority of patients was 2 days or less.
Conclusion: Males are more vulnerable to appendicitis than females. The Clinical findings, histopathological findings, imaging and Alvarado scoring systems are very useful for correct diagnosis of appendicitis and avoidance of improper appendectomy. Further studies should be conducted to compare Alvarado scoring with other scores to determine which the best, this might help in proper diagnosis and may eliminate the use of some imaging tools. Among confirmed cases appendectomy is still the treatment of choice.

Key words: Appendicitis, Prevalence, Saudi Arabia