Keywords:
Not applicable, Pathology, Radiation safety, Health policy and practice, Ultrasound, Digital radiography, CT, Emergency, Abdomen, Projection Radiography
Authors:
W. Tam; Reading/UK
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-01416
Purpose
Abdomen x-ray (AXR) is a commonly requested radiographic examination for non-specific acute abdominal pain. However, recent evidence indicates one in three patients are discharged from A&E without a diagnosis for their abdominal pain [1], questioning the role of AXRs in this clinical pathway.
An average dose of an AXR is 0.7-1.3mSv [2-4] and if the AXR does not provide sufficient information for a diagnosis, further imaging will be needed which associates with a higher healthcare cost, rate of complications, mortality and readmission [1, 5-8]. More importantly, if AXR does not give adequate information for a treatment plan, it is unjustified for the patient to have an AXR. This study aimed to find out the position of AXR in the clinical pathway and investigate if an algorithm could be constructed to solve the underlying reason for the misapplication.