NEGATIVE APPENDICECTOMY RATE IN CURRENT SURGICAL PRACTICE

Objective: to determine the negative appendicectomy rate in current surgical practicematerial and methods: this prospective descriptive study was conducted in hamdard university hospital and four other private hospitals where authors practice from march 2006 to february 2008. one hundred and sixty eight patients underwent appendicectomy during the study period. details of clinical presentations, investigations, operative findings and histopathology were entered and analyzed. result was compared with local and international studies.results: a total number of 168 patients with age range from 8 to 59 years, including 88 male and 80 female, under went appendicectomy. normal appendices were found in 31 patients (negative appendicectomy rate 18.45%) and associated pathology was seen in 13 patients, an incidental finding of meckel's diverticulum in 5 patients and no other pathology was seen in 13 patients.conclusion: in current surgical practice negative appendicectomy rate is still high 18.45%