Can orthopaedic clinicians learn to read skeletal bone age? An inter- and intra observer study between specialties

• Published in: Journal of children's orthopaedics Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 69 - 72
• Main Authors: Rajan, R. A., Swindells, M. G., Metcalfe, J. E., Konstantoulakis, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2011; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Age; Confidence intervals; Data analysis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Clinical; Original Clinical Article; Orthopedics; Patients; Pediatrics; Surgeons; Surgery; Traumatic Surgery; Validity; Wrist; Orthopaedic training; Radiology teaching; Bone age measurement
• ISSN: 1863-2521; 1863-2548
• DOI: 10.1007/s11832-010-0307-1

Objective Determination of skeletal age is essential for predicting eventual leg length discrepancies and predicting the accurate timing for surgical intervention in order to correct any discrepancy. To our knowledge, there has not been an interdisciplinary comparison of the degree of agreement in determining skeletal bone age. Materials and methods We evaluated 30 left hand/wrist radiographs (children aged 16 months to 10 years 6 months) on two separate occasions between musculoskeletal paediatric radiologists, paediatric orthopaedic surgeons and a senior radiographer after appropriate training. Results All clinicians were able to reliably age patients with good intra- and interobserver agreement. Conclusion We suggest that following tuition, orthopaedic surgeons are able to reliably age patients from X-rays.