Significance of Histopathological Examination in Appendicectomy Specimens

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the clinical benefits of histopathological examination in appendicectomy
cases with initial clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in Histopathology section of Services Institute
of Medical Sciences, Lahore spanning over a period of 15 months from Jan. 2018 to Mar.2019.
Results: Total 1147 cases of appendicectomy with presumed clinical diagnosis of acute
appendicitis were received during the study period. Out of these 54% were males and 46% were
females. Majority of the patients belonged to second and third decade of life. Histopathologic
examination revealed acute appendicitis in 83.8% cases, lymphoid follicular hyperplasia causing
obstruction in 8.4% cases, worm infestation in 0.3% cases, fibrosed appendix in 0.7 %, chronic
granulomatous inflammation in 0.09% and neoplastic lesions in 0.5% of cases while no evidence
of acute appendicitis identified on histological examination in 0.5% cases.
Conclusions: Routine histopathology examination should be performed in all cases so that any
incidental finding is not missed which may affect the patient management