Erect chest radiography in the setting of the acute abdomen: essential tool or an unnecessary waste of resources?

Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
S AlazzawiM H Lewis

Abstract

It has been suggested that changes to the training schemes of junior doctors and the increased pressure on emergency departments to manage their patients within a limited time might increase the number of unnecessary investigations performed on emergency admission patients. This, in turn, may lead to an increased number of investigations with normal results. In this study we try to analyse the role of the chest X-ray (CXR) as a diagnostic tool in patients presenting with acute abdominal pain. A retrospective study was performed of the request forms and results of all chest radiography performed on patients admitted on the emergency surgical intake with acute abdominal pain through utilisation of the prospectively maintained electronic radiology database. The indications were compared to the guidelines published by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) which have been adopted as the standard of care. A total of 334 chest X-rays were identified of which only 23 (7%) had new findings. Four (1%) patients had free gas under the diaphragm. Of the CXRs, 258 (77%) were reported normal whilst 53 (16%) had old changes which were described in their hospital records and previous radiographs. Of the CXRs with new findings, only 20 were cl...Continue Reading

References

Dec 2, 2004·The Surgeon : Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland·E J Dawson, S Paterson-Brown
May 25, 2006·Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England·G Morris-StiffH Morris-Stiff
Sep 4, 2007·Clinical Radiology·D RemediosUNKNOWN The Royal College Of Radiologists Guidelines Working Party
Jun 7, 2008·Pediatrics International : Official Journal of the Japan Pediatric Society·Aggelos TsalkidisAthanasios Chatzimichael
Apr 24, 2010·Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England·J P SinghD Murray

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Citations

Nov 22, 2012·Pediatric Pulmonology·Tai-Heng ChenTzeng-Jih Lin
Nov 20, 2016·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Ashika JainRichard Sinert

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BETA
X-ray
pregnancy tests

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