'Hunt the thimble': a study of the radiology of ingested foreign bodies.
The role of radiology in the management of patients with a history of ingested foreign bodies is reviewed in a retrospective study over a 2-year period in a Children's Hospital. If radiography was confined to those children who have a clinical history suggestive of foreign body impaction in the oesophagus, a foreign body aspiration or having swallowed a button battery, the work load and unnecessary radiation arising from this practice could be halved. This study demonstrates another misuse of radiological services.
D000293:Adolescent; D001995:Bronchography; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004739:England; D004947:Esophagus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006300:Health Services Misuse; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012017:Referral and Consultation