ABSTRACT

Appropriate surgical management of the patient relies on correct diagnosis. While clinical symptoms and signs may provide a firm diagnosis in some cases, other conditions will require the use of supplementary investigations including imaging techniques. The number and scope of imaging techniques available to the surgeon have dramatically increased within a generation, from a time when radiographs alone were the mainstay of investigation. The development of ultrasound and colour Doppler, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has enabled the surgeon to make increasingly confident diagnoses and has reduced the need for diagnostic surgical techniques such as explorative laparotomy. Faced with such a plethora of imaging to choose from, it is important that the patient is not sent on a journey through multiple unnecessary examinations