Radiology section: Are abdominal radiographs still overutilized in the assessment of acute Abdominal pain? A district general hospital audit

摘要

Several studies have shown that plain film radiography (PFR) is unnecessary for most patients with abdominal pain. To evaluate the current-day utilization of PFR, we retrospectively reviewed 224 patients presenting to an emergency department with acute abdominal pain. Plain film radiography was performed in 55.8/100 (125/224) of patients, but only 10.4/100 (13/125) of these were diagnostic. Most patients with non-specific abdominal pain had radiographs (62/100, 31/50), suggesting that PFR was being used as a routine investigation.