Table 2.

Outcome of the prospective investigation

	Symptoms, signs and diagnostic measures present at time of treatment decision, per cent of all cases		Symptoms, signs and diagnostic measures with greatest impact on treatment decision (3 per patient), per cent of those with positive symptom, sign or diagnostic measure
Symptoms	n	%	n	%
Nausea	66	56	0	0
Vomiting	39	33	2	5
Loss of appetite	40	34	4	10
Pain in the right fossa	110	94	27	25
Pain in the left fossa	13	11	0	0
Pain in the right hypocondrium	12	10	0	0
Pain in the left hypochondrium	2	2	0	0
Pain in the epigastrium	12	10	0	0
Pain in the umbilical area	29	25	4	14
Pain migration	66	56	33	50
Insidious occurrence of pain	58	50	4	7
Pain provoked by movement	55	47	10	19
Signs
Fever	38	32	8	21
Tenderness in the right fossa	106	91	81	76
Tenderness in the left fossa	18	15	2	11
Tenderness in the right hypochondrium	7	6	1	14
Tenderness in the left hypochondrium	2	2	0	0
Tenderness in the epigastrium	2	2	0	0
Tenderness in the umbilical area	13	11	0	0
Indirect tenderness	51	44	18	35
Rigid abdomen	8	7	3	38
Diagnostic measures
Image diagnostics	78	67	70	90
Raised leukocyte count	76	65	29	38
Raised CRP	89	76	31	35
Increasing CRP	41	35	13	32

Symptoms, signs and diagnostic measures recorded prior to surgery