Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Controlled Radiography for Ankle Injury Cases in Kids in the Emergency Department: Implementation of the Low Risk Ankle Rule
Brief Summary:
Ankle injuries are a very common injury in children. Each year approximately 35000 kids present to Ontario emergency departments (ED) with this problem. Right now, about 90% of these children get x-rays of the injured ankle, even though only 12% of these x-rays show a break in the bone. Some excellent research has created some rules that doctors can use to help them decide which children really need x-rays. Unfortunately, even though these rules have been proven to safely reduce x-rays by as much as two-thirds, most doctors are not using these rules.
Therefore, this study will be the first to put the best paediatric ankle x-ray rule, the Low Rick Ankle Rule, into physician practice in EDs. Our main goal is to determine how much we can reduce ankle x-ray rates in EDs that use this rule regularly versus those that do not. If we show that doctors can safely use this rule regularly and the number of ankle x-rays will be significantly less, this will lessen unnecessary potentially harmful radiation exposure in children, these children will spend less time in an ED, and the health care system will save money.