Keywords:
Acute, Surgery, Outcomes analysis, MR, Neuroradiology spine, Musculoskeletal spine, Emergency
Authors:
H. M. A. OBrien, G. Karnati, J. Kasznia-Brown, S. King, P. Burn; Taunton/UK
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-1124
Aims and objectives
In 2015 the British Association of Spinal Surgeons published standards of care for suspected and confirmed compressive cauda equine syndrome (CES)1.
In this publication,
they recommend urgent MRI scans are performed in cases of suspected CES.
In addition,
guidelines released by the National Institute of Clinical excellence (NICE) recommend MRI whole spine for adults with suspected malignant spinal cord compression (MSCC) is performed within 24 hours of the suspected diagnosis being made2.
Following the release of these publications,
relevant clinical pathways in our trust were updated in accordance with these recommendations.
We aimed to assess the impact of these updated pathways on the frequency of acute out of hour (OOH) spinal MRIs performed and to determine how the MRI results influences subsequent patient management.