Introduction:

Acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the most frequent abdominal surgical pathologies globally, with appendectomy being the most performed emergency surgery.

Aim:

To determine potential markers of AA severity for diagnostic purposes and timely management, thus avoiding possible complications.

Materials and methods:

This research relies on a randomized sample of 239 patients diagnosed with AA at the Orinoquía Regional Hospital, Colombia. We analyzed blood count, C-reactive protein (CRP), and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) records and established their relationship with the AA surgical findings described by Guzmán-Valdivia.

Results:

In the emergency department, these reactants can provide an approximate diagnosis as markers of the AA severity, with CRP > 15 mg/dL (diagnostic accuracy of 76.15 %) and NLR > 85 % (diagnostic accuracy of 61.09 %) having the best initial operating performance. Regarding complications such as intestinal perforation, we found a statistical relationship; CRP > 15 mg/dL and NLR > 85 % were the markers with the highest predictive performance, with OR 14.46 and OR 2. 17, respectively, regarding Guzmán-Valdivia’s findings.

Conclusions:

CRP and NLR > 85 % are the acute phase reactants with the best diagnostic characteristics to predict potential AA complications.

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