Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The "speed bump" sign to detect appendicitis

This group in the UAE did a small prospective study suggesting that, among patients presenting with suspected appendicitis, the "speed bump sign" of increased pain over speed bumps is over 90% sensitive for appy.

Again, it's small. And the pretest probability in this group of patients was very high, while the specificity was low (40%). But, as with rebound tenderness, it's another reminder that peritonitis doesn't like to be jostled.

Oh, and hi--Low-Resource Medicine is back after an extended hiatus. We'll be posting relevant tidbits at intermittent intervals and always welcome readers' thoughts. Who knows; we might even update our look.