A satirical letter to radiologists from a jilted orthopedic surgeon

"We orthopedic surgeons are disappointed with the growing lack of enthusiasm in your reports. When I began in practice almost 15 years ago, it wasn't unusual to see a report of a post-reduction or post-surgical X-ray that read, 'alignment is now anatomic' or, at a minimum, 'near anatomic.'

What happened? What did we do to deserve reports like, 'Overlying cast obscures fine bony detail. Alignment is improved from pre-reduction imaging,' after we closed reduced a mangled looking extremity and got it back anatomically? Or better yet, '54 seconds of fluoroscopic time was provided for ORIF of femur. Correlate with operative report,' when we ORIF'd the hell out of it."

Samara Friedman is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "An open letter to radiologists from a jilted orthopedic surgeon." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/11/an-open-letter-to-radiologists-from-a-jilted-orthopedic-surgeon.html)