Doctors are ordering too many unnecessary X-rays for children with breathing problems or tummy aches, paediatric experts say.
New recommendations released Monday by the Choosing Wisely Australia initiative has warned doctors off routinely ordering the tests for diagnosing bronchiolitis and asthma as well as vague symptoms like abdominal pain in children.
X-rays were of no use in more than 95 per cent of cases of children with stomach pain and very rarely lead to doctors changing they way treated their paediatric patients, said the collaborative group lead by paediatricians at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
For children with respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchiolitis, X-rays helped diagnose the illness in about one in 100 children, according to the Choosing Wisely initiative
President of the Royal College of Physicians' Paediatrics & Child Health Division Dr Sarah Dalton urged her colleagues to hold off ordering the scans unless it was clinically necessary.
"Unfortunately what we see is that so many of these children that come in to emergency departments with breathing problems and are having chest X-rays that doesn't really change the treatment that we offer but it does put them at risk of the radiation that is associated with the X-ray and that is what we are trying to stop," Dr Dalton said.
"The challenge is working out when they're needed and when they're not."
X-rays should always be ordered if a doctor suspects pneumonia or a complication of bronchiolitis, but "in most situations when we examine children with this kind of problem there is no indication of it being pneumonia and therefore they don't really need the X-ray", she said.
"For any parents who might be concerned ... I would say to them we want to make sure we are only ordering a test when it is medically beneficial for your child."
Unnecessary X-rays were the main target of the latest tranche of the Choosing Wisely initiative, which also advised doctors against ordering the tests for adults with lower back pain.
The initiative, aimed at improving medical care and cutting the rates of over-treatment, also recommended doctors not give workers medical certificates indicating they were 'totally unfit for work' unless clinically necessary.
"Where appropriate we are encouraging willing patients to continue working in some capacity as part of their overall healthcare management," said president of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Associate Professor Peter Connaughton.
With AAP
