title: What is the clinical disadvantage of discarding old radiographs? Survey of patients not re-examined for a long time.
abstract: The clinical disadvantage of discarding old radiographs was evaluated in patients who had not been re-examined for more than 8 years after their last radiological examination, 38,772 in total. During the 1 year survey, 158 (0.41%) of them underwent re-examination after a long interval. Retrospective evaluation revealed that in only 12 patients (0.032%) were the old films useful. This survey suggested that the clinical risk of not referring to films more than 8 years old would be less than 0.049%. We consider this acceptable, and have formulated new guidelines of storage of films.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, St Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oyama
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ashida
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saeki
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011859:Radiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011872:Radiology Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors