The abdominal X-ray is often requested as a component of the diagnostic evaluation for abdominal problems within hospital settings. To mitigate unwarranted referrals, the implementation of guidelines has been undertaken, outlining suggested criteria for the use of abdominal X-rays. The present study included an evaluation of emergency physicians' adherence to referral criteria. Subsequently, an audit was conducted to examine the findings and provide a comprehensive analysis of the recommendations. Finally, a re-audit was performed to determine the extent of improvement in adherence to these guidelines. According to the fitness to the standard guidelines, the results showed that 75.4% of these referrals were fit to the guidelines prior to audit. After the audit, the fitness to follow guidelines equals 93.3% of the cases, which was significantly higher than the fitness to follow guidelines in the initial survey (P value = 0.007).

Index Terms: Abdominal X-ray, Children, Audit, Emergency, abdominal radiograph.