Towards evidence-based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 1: is abdominal pain when asked to hop suggestive of appendicitis in children?
A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether abdominal pain on hopping/jumping can assist in the initial diagnosis of appendicitis in children. Four studies were directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that the presence of abdominal pain when asked to hop seems to be both reasonably sensitive and specific to a diagnosis of appendicitis in children.