Clinical relevance of the routine daily chest X-Ray in the surgical intensive care unit.

Introduction: A daily Chest X-ray (CXR) is obtained in many surgical intensive care units (SICU). This study implemented a selective CXR protocol in a high volume, academic SICU and evaluated its impact on clinical outcomes.

Methods: All SICU patients admitted in 2/2010 were compared with patients admitted in 2/2012.