The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) have released guidance for the increase in requests for pre-operative chest CT for Covid-19.
“The relatively low pick up rate of Covid-19 in asymptomatic patients with positive RT-PCR and a 20% false negative rate in symptomatic patients, indicates that pre-operative CT chest is of limited utility,” the guidance says.
The RCR supports the agreed intercollegiate statements fromthe Surgical Royal Colleges and recommends routine Covid-19 precautions, in addition to their guidance.
“If, despite a negative swab and patient isolation, there is still concern about possible Covid-19 infection in asymptomatic patients, there should be discussion between the clinical team and the duty radiologist to determine whether further imaging is justified,” the guidance states.
Read the full Statement on use of CT chest to screen for COVID-19 in pre-operative patients.