The importance of diagnosing appendicitis in pregnant women and differentiating it from other causes of acute abdominal pain : Evidence-based review

Background and Objective: Appendicitis is one of the diagnostic problems related to acute abdominal pain during pregnancy. It is believed that the location of the appendix in pregnant women changes as the fetus grows and the size of the uterus increases, and one of the diagnostic problems associated with acute abdominal pain during pregnancy is appendicitis and its positioning, which delay in diagnosis can cause Increase mortality. Materials and Methods: The present study is a review study that by searching the databases of SID, IRAN DOC and GOOGLE SCHOLAR search engine with the keywords "acute abdominal pain", "appendicitis during pregnancy", "appendicitis" and the external and valid PUBMED database with the keywords " ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN "" APPENDICITIS DURING PREGNANCY "" APPENDICITIS "has been done from ۲۰۰۰ to ۲۰۲۱. Inclusion criteria were all articles that examined "acute abdominal pain" and "appendicitis during pregnancy" and exclusion criteria were articles that did not examine the relationship between the two. Finally, ۲۶ articles were analyzed in depth. Results : Studies show that the similarity of the main symptoms in cases of acute abdomen and normal symptoms of pregnancy causes problems in clinical and paraclinical findings, and also physiological changes during pregnancy make it more difficult to diagnose and complicate treatment, while acute appendicitis is one. It is one of the urgencies of surgery that must be examined and operated with speed and accuracy. Discussion and Conclusion: Acute abdominal pain during pregnancy is extremely dangerous and failure to diagnose it correctly and in a timely manner can endanger the lives of mother and fetus, so timely precautions and measures can prevent its catastrophic consequences.