A memorable patient: When guidelines fail

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7325.1343

BMJ 2001;323:1343 ( 8 December )

Filler

A memorable patient

When guidelines fail

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

She was a 78 year old widow who lived in sheltered accommodation and, despite being partially sighted because of advancingglaucoma, was still able to get about with her white cane. Sherarely visited our surgery, and when she did it was for a flujab or regarding moderate generalised osteoarthritis. This morning,however, she limped into my consulting room apologetically andsaid, "The heel of my right foot is hurting, doctor. I'm findingit difficult to walk to the shops. My eyesight doesn't helpeither."

I set out to examine her foot. There was nothing grossly abnormal. It was well perfused, no swellings, and no evidence ofany trauma. Deep palpation over the calcaneum produced tenderness."Bingo," I thought, "plantar fasciitis, with or without calcanealspur." I reached for an x ray form when I suddenly rememberedthe fate of the previous x ray form I had sent for an . . . [Full text of this article]

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Despite author's opinion, radiology guideline was correct: Bob Bury
BMJ 2002 324: 547. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Bury, B. (2002). Despite author's opinion, radiology guideline was correct. BMJ 324: 547-547 [Full text]

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