Orthopaedic surgeons do not consult radiology reports. Fact or fiction?

Purpose: To find out how orthopaedic surgeons handle radiological reports and to identify ways to improve musculoskeletal radiology service and interdisciplinary communication.

Method: An anonymised 14-question online survey was distributed among 27 orthopaedic departments in German-speaking parts of Europe. It was available to trainees and consultants between 22/10/2020 and 05/06/2021. The questionnaire collected information regarding the participants' habits of consulting radiology reports depending on the imaging modality, reasons for not reading reports and asked for improvement recommendations for the radiology service.

Results: 81 orthopaedists participated. 20% would never consult a plain radiograph report. In contrast, only 4% would never consult a CT report and no one claimed to never consult an MRI report. 43%, 67% and 86% would routinely consult radiology reports of radiographs, CT and MRI studies, respectively. Long time to report availability (24%), a general lack of time (19%) and too long texts (17%) were the most popular reasons for not consulting the reports. 62% of participants voted to sometimes disagree with the reports and in cases of opinion discrepancy 51% would always or often contact the radiologist. 64% preferred to be informed directly via phone about relevant unexpected findings. Most popular report improvement recommendations were more rapid report availability (24%), inclusion of significant images (19%) and inclusion of more angle and distance measurements (16%). In the free text column, a desire for direct interdisciplinary discussion of equivocal cases was often stated (30%).

Conclusions: Concluding, this survey showed that orthopaedic surgeons routinely consult radiology reports. The participants expressed a desire for increased, direct interdisciplinary communication to solve equivocal cases and improve patient care.