Negative Appendectomy vs Preoperative CT scan | KK Women's and Children's Hospital

KKH's Children's Surgery Centre, is the largest centre for paediatric surgery in Singapore. We manage a wide range of surgical conditions in children — from newborns and premature infants to those under 18 years old.

Our Services Include:

General paediatric surgery
Neonatal surgery
Corrective surgery for congenital deformities
Paediatric urology
Paediatric surgical oncology
Paediatric hepatobiliary surgery
Minimally invasive surgery
Day surgery

Clinics at the Children’s Surgery Centre:

General Paediatric Surgery
Paediatric Urology
Urology Transition Clinic
Urobio Clinic
Wound Clinic

Multidisciplinary Clinics:

Vascular Malformation
Spina Bifida
Liver Clinic
Bowel Management Clinic
Neurofibromatosis

KKH is the only Paediatric Hospital in Asia to participate in the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Programme for Pediatrics (NSQIP-P). This programme uses accurate and robust clinical data to compare surgical outcomes of patients from over 150 other international participating hospitals. This allows us to benchmark our clinical outcomes and identify areas for improvement.

Negative appendectomy vs preoperative CT scan

Acute appendicitis is a common condition in children. KKH sees approximately 200 cases of children with acute appendicitis a year. Although common, its diagnosis can be challenging. If operated too late, perforation could increase the risk of complications. If operated early when diagnosis is still in doubt, it could turn out to be an unnecessary operation ("negative appendicectomy"). As such, many centres perform computer tomography (CT) scans to confirm the diagnosis, but this entails radiation, which is something to be avoided or minimised in children. KKH is proud to have achieved low negative appendicectomy rates¹ even with very low rates of pre-operative CT imaging². This reflects the high accuracy of our clinical and ultrasound diagnosis.

Conclusion

In the unfortunate event that a child develops acute appendicitis, KKH offers timely, expert care and is well-equipped to handle such emergencies safely and efficiently.

Reference:

ACS NSQIP Pediatric Semi-Annual Report July 2022, July 2023 and July 2024 Appendectomy Hospital Report
ACS NSQIP Pediatric Semi-Annual Report July 2024 Appendectomy Report Card

Paediatric Surgery - Negative Appendectomy vs Preoperative CT Scan