Differences between orthopaedic evaluation and radiological reports of conventional radiographs in patients with minor trauma admitted to the emergency department

Abstract Introduction During night and on weekends, in our emergency department there is no radiologist on duty or on call: thus, X-ray examinations (XR) are evaluated by the orthopaedic surgeon on duty and reported the following morning/monday by radiologists. The aim of our study was to examine the discrepancy rate between orthopaedists and radiologists in the interpretation of imaging examinations performed on patients in our tertiary level orthopaedic institution and the consequences of delayed diagnosis in terms of patient management and therapeutic strategy. Materials and methods We retrospectively reviewed all cases of discrepancy between orthopaedists and radiologists, which were ca…