The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the recent trend of diagnosing appendiceal diseases through the analysis of appendectomy materials, stressing the importance of their pathological examination. A clinicopathological assessment of patients undergoing an appendectomy was conducted, based on the pathological examination of resected appendiceal lesions. Using a pathological database of surgical specimens from patients who underwent an appendectomy between March 2002 and September 2014, a retrospective, single-center analysis was performed. Among the 803 patients identified, 752 with appendiceal disease were selected for clinicopathological analysis. The diagnosis was inflammation (i.e. appendicitis) in 97.7% (n=735) and appendiceal neoplasm in 2.3% (n=17) of the patients. The most frequent type of appendiceal neoplasm was an intramucosal neoplasm (23.5%, n=4). In conclusion, the incidence of appendiceal neoplasms has increased in recent years, potentially due to increased and earlier detection by newer imaging modalities.
Keywords: appendiceal neoplasm; computed tomography; low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm; single institution in Japan; vermiform appendix.