Commonly missed injuries in the accident and emergency department

Abstract

Accident and emergency (A&E) medicine is a high-risk speciality in which the majority of patients are managed by junior doctors with limited clinical experience. A review of the literature identified that the rate of missed injury ranges from 0.4 to 65%. Missed injuries are by definition preventable and have multiple implications for patients and health-care workers. This article reviews the types of injury that are commonly missed in A&E departments and identifies the errors that have been made in the past, with recommendations for management strategies to reduce the incidence of missed injury.

Keywords

A&E delayed diagnosis missed injury radiology audit tertiary trauma survey

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