Imaging Errors in the Emergency Department: A Case Report

Emergency departments must take care of people presenting physical trauma in a short time, especially where elderly patients are concerned. Otherwise unfortunate errors might be committed for many reasons. One of the main causes of diagnostic errors in the emergency department is the failure to correctly interpret radiographs, and the majority of diagnoses missed on X-ray imaging are fractures. Diagnostic errors potentially have important consequences for patients, clinicians and radiologists. Radiologists play a pivotal role in the diagnostic assessment of multi-traumatic patients, and key elements to reduce errors in the emergency setting are knowledge, experience and the correct application of imaging protocols. With this case report the author describes a typical situation which may happen in an emergency department of a small town with the aim of highlighting the causes of the spectrum of diagnostic errors in radiography in the emergency setting.