Academic Radiology 2000; 7:48-60
Rowling Susan E., Jacobs Jill E., Birnbaum Bernard A.
Thin-section computed tomography (CT) has greatly influenced the management of patients presenting with acute lower abdominal pain. In the past, patients with a history of "acute abdomen" were evaluated primarily with emergent exploratory laparotomy. Although surgical intervention may be indicated, as in cases of acute appendicitis, the differential diagnosis includes a wide range of both surgical emergencies and self-limited processes that vary considerably with patient age and sex. Over the past decade, CT has proved extremely useful in the diagnosis and staging of gastrointestinal disorders and in the detection of nongastrointestinal causes of acute abdominal pain. The increasing availability and improved resolution of CT has made it an efficient, cost-effective, noninvasive tool that helps separate patients who require emergent surgery from those who may be treated more conservatively (1-3). In this article, we discuss the current role of CT in the diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis and diverticulitis.