The Pediatric Appendicitis Risk Calculator (pARC) is a clinical decision rule and predictor of the likelihood of acute appendicitis in pediatric patients. Due to the non-categorical data of some variables within the criteria, an integrated calculator is required to use this tool.
On this page:
Criteria 1,2
- age
- sex
- male
- 5-7.9 years
- 8-13.9 years
- 14-18 years
- female
- 5-7.9 years
- 8-11.9 years
- 12-18 years
- male
- duration of pain
- <24 hours
- 24-47 hours
- 48-96 hours
- pain with walking or hopping
- maximal tenderness in RLQ
- migration of pain to RLQ
- guarding
- absolute neutrophil count
- community ED or pediatric ED setting
Risk categories
- very low: <5%
- low: 5-14%
- intermediate: 15-84%
- high: 85%
For a risk category of low/very low, the NPV is >98% 2
For a risk category of high, the PPV is 85% 2
Exclusion criteria
- abdominal trauma in the past 7 days
- current pregnancy
- history of abdominal surgery including appendectomy