Imaging children with acute right lower quadrant pain.

In summary, sonography is the primary modality for evaluating children with acute right lower quadrant pain. Sonography is particularly useful in the evaluation of children with suspected appendicitis in whom the clinical findings are equivocal, and in the evaluation of female children with suspected pelvic pathology. Findings at sonography should not supersede clinical judgement in patients who are believed to be at high clinical risk of having appendicitis on the basis of clinical signs and symptoms. Abdominal radiographs are helpful primarily if small bowel obstruction or perforation is suspected; CT is useful for evaluating complications of appendicitis and evaluating the postoperative patient.