Introduction:

Acute appendicitis is an infectious inflammatory disease of the cecal appendix, it is the most common cause of surgical emergency in pediatrics. The clinical manifestations vary significantly according to age and sex. A thorough history and physical examination is an essential tool for diagnosis, as are complementary tests, to avoid performing an incidental appendectomy.

Objective:

To describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics in children with appendicitis, to improve timely diagnosis and treatment.

Materials and Methods:

This was a retrospective, descriptive and cross-sectional study on cases of appendicitis registered in the Pediatric Service of the General Hospital IESS Ambato. No sample size calculation was performed, non-probabilistic sampling of consecutive cases was performed.

Results:

It was possible to determine that temperature greater than 37.5 °C, tachycardia, diffuse abdominal pain, Mc Burney's sign, leukocytosis with neutrophilia and a normal urine test have a direct diagnostic association with appendicitis.

Conclusion:

Appendicitis clinical scoring scales are recommended to avoid a higher incidence of incidental appendectomies.

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