Orthos, why am I being asked to do image guided taps on joints without fluid all of a sudden?
Hi, IR here. There's been a huge uptick over the past year to do image guided taps on every joint in the body if the person has pain +/- elevated ESR. I'm not talking about just hips and shoulders. I'm talking wrists, ankles, knees.... joints that are easy to access by landmarks. These aren't directed towards a particular fluid collection, but "rule out septic joint" that are usually dry and end in lavage. (Note lavage, at best, has a 50% diagnostic rate). What's happening here? I don't want to push back if there's some new data or something in the literature I don't know about it, but it honestly feels like a dump. I know other specialties in the hospital thinks IR just sits around all day, but we are busy as fuck, and if it's something that can be done at bedside, it should be done at bedside.
Thanks for any insight.