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Patients evaluated for orthopedic tumors often undergo unnecessary imaging
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Results of a recently published study indicated patients evaluated for a musculoskeletal tumors frequently underwent unnecessary imaging procedures.
Researchers evaluated 298 consecutive patients with 550 pre-referral imaging studies who were were referred to a single institution for study of musculoskeletal neoplasms over a 3-month period. After analysis by two radiologists and two oncologists specializing in orthopedics, pre-referral imaging studies were deemed inappropriate based on indication for diagnosis/treatment or if the studies had to be re-done due to excessive time since they were obtained or were of poor quality.
Overall, 112 pre-referral advanced imaging studies (32.4%) were deemed inappropriate. Broken down, 1.5% of radiographs, 36.5% of CT scans, 26.7% of MRI scans, 45.1% of bone scans and 45.5% of positron emission tomography scans were deemed inappropriate. No significant differences were observed based on whether orthopedic surgeons (28.2%) or primary care physicians (26.5%) recommended the imaging deemed inappropriate in this study, according to the researchers. – by Christian Ingram
Disclosure: Nystrom has no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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