Introduction:

Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of acute abdomen and surgical treatment in the emergency services, and although this disease has been known since ancient times, its diagnosis still has inaccuracies that concern the scientific community.

Objective:

To make a review of the current criteria about the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in order to delve into its cognitive aspects.

Methods:

Search of updated publications in Spanish and English in Science, Lilacs, Latindex, Elsevier, PubMed, Medline and Google databases.

Results:

In the last few years, the acute appendicitis-associated mortality has decreased due to the technological advances in surgery, anesthesiology and resuscitation, the existence of intensive care units for critically-ill patients and the use of increasingly powerful antibiotics. However, morbidity rates still show high incidence of perforations despite the use of inflammatory markers, imaging-based diagnoses and the development of videolaparoscopic techniques. Despite all this, appendicectomies continue to be performed to treat normal appendices.

Conclusions:

The clinical method remains the method of choice to make a diagnosis, since the lab and imaging tests have not been better so far. Nevertheless, they are important support because the diagnostic scales contribute to their earliness with a view to reducing morbidity and mortality as well as unnecessary appendicectomies or appendicectomy in advanced disease stagings.

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