Each year, over 2 million people visit U.S. emergency departments for suspected renal colic, which typically causes intense flank or abdominal pain due to kidney stones blocking the urinary track.
Each year, over 2 million people visit U.S. emergency departments for suspected renal colic, which typically causes intense flank or abdominal pain due to kidney stones blocking the urinary track.
Led by Christopher L. Moore, Yale associate professor and chief of the section of emergency ultrasound in the department of emergency medicine, a group of multidisciplinary researchers conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature and engaged in a structured consensus process to determine scenarios where CT could be avoided in the diagnosis of renal colic. While CT scans are accurate in identifying renal colic, the technology can expose patients to harmful radiation and often don’t change management of the condition, said the researchers.
“In many cases CT scanning hasn’t been shown to impact patient-centered outcomes, and there was broad consensus that we’re overutilizing CT imaging for kidney stones,” Moore said. “With CT you’re providing significant radiation; there’s expense, and incidental findings that can lead to further imaging that is usually not helpful.”
Read more at Yale University
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
