Objective: This study was conducted to determine the role of the doctors in late-diagnosed appendicitis cases.

Material and Method: The patients who were operated with the diagnosis of appendicitis in our clinic during June 2012- 2013 were observed. The patients\' age, sex, period to application to hospital, laboratory and radiological analysis, histopathology results, alvarado score, drug use and the physicians who first evaluated the patients were recorded.

Results: 100 patients were observed in the study. 70 patients were male and 30 were female. The average age of the patients was 10.2 years (3-16 years). Application period was 1.8 day (8 hours-7 days) in average. As the first application centre, 5 patients applied to family practice centre, 36 patients applied to a practitioner in the emergency service of state hospitals, 11 patients applied to pediatric outpatient department and 48 patients applied to pediatric emergency service of our hospital. 34 patients had acute, 27 patients had suppurative and 39 patients had perforated appendicitis. 10 out of 39 cases that were perforated resulted from delayed application. 36 patients in total could not be diagnosed in the first application centre. 6 out of 29 patients were under 5 years old, 11 patients were between 5 and 10 years old and 12 patients were over 10 years old.

Conclusion: It was remarkable that physicians in pediatric and emergency services could not diagnose appendicitis. The fact that families delayed to bring their children having abdominal pain to hospital ranked number two. Among the reasons making the diagnosis difficult, the medical treatment that the family and/or physicians started was one of the identifiable reasons. We are of the opinion that awareness of other physicians as well as pediatric surgeons about acute appendicitis in children should be increased.