Significance Of Leucocytic Count In Diagnosis Of Acute Appendicitis:

El Sayed Mohamid Fahim Eshaba

1- 100 cases were examined in this work.2- Full clinical examinartittft, total & differential leuco-cytic count, operative findings and pathological examination of the specimens were done.3-The cases were classifiel into the following:Normal appendix 10%Acute catarrhal appendicitis 17%Acute suppurative appendicitis 45%Acute gangrenous appendicitis 21%Perforated appendicitis 5%Appendistlar mass 2%4-76% of the cases of acute appendicitis showed rise in the total leucocytic count.5-78 of the cases of acute appendicitis showed rise in the neutrophil counh6-93.3% of the cases of acute appendicitis showed rise in either total or differential leucocytic count.7-The incidence of acute appendicitis in bilharzial cases was 4.4%.8-There is direct proportion between the severity of the inflammation and the leucocytic count, which reversed when the appendix perforates, where the leucocytic countDROPs again.CONCLUSIONThe finaings of flis work suggest that a routine leucooytic count, total and differential, are of value im the diagnosis of a suspected case of acute appendicitis. A leucocytosis of more than 10,000/cu.mm. of a differentialin excess of 7% osutrephils supports the olinica1 diagnosis of appendicitis, but a normal leuoocytic count does not exclude even a perforated appendix. A leucoaytic count may be specially useful in a difficult cases, for example, with estypical history or symptoms out of proportion to the physical signs, and in shildren where a clear history is difficult to obtain and who will not be cooperative during examination.