Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc
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Patients often present to the emergency department with a wide variety of nontraumatic infectious, inflammatory, and neoplastic conditions of the head and neck. Because the use of cervical and neck computed tomography (CT) has become routine in the emergency setting, knowledge of the imaging findings of common acute conditions of the head and neck is essential to ensure an accurate diagnosis of these potentially life-threatening conditions, which include oral cavity infections, tonsillitis and peritonsillar abscess, sialadenitis, parotiditis, diskitis, thrombophlebitis, periorbital and orbital cellulitis, infectious cervical lymphadenopathy, and various neoplasms. ⋯ Familiarity with these conditions enables the radiologist to make a prompt diagnosis, assess the extent of disease, and evaluate for potential complications. CT is the first-line imaging modality in the emergency setting; however, magnetic resonance imaging plays an important secondary role.
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Quality initiatives: anatomy and pathophysiology of errors occurring in clinical radiology practice.
The Joint Commission requires development of comprehensive error detection systems that incorporate root cause analyses for all sentinel events. To prevent medical errors from occurring, there is a need for a readily available and easy-to-implement system for detecting, classifying, and managing mistakes. The wide spectrum of interrelated contributing factors makes the classification of errors difficult. ⋯ Further considerations should include nonmedical impact of the error, including legal, social, and economic effects on both the patient and the system. Rather than focusing the investigation on blaming individuals for active failures, the primary effort should be to discover latent system failures that can be remedied at a departmental level. Such an error classification system will decrease the likelihood of future errors and diminish their adverse impact.