Is there a role for the intravenous urogram in the 21st century?

Over the last two decades, there have been major advances in methods of medical imaging that have brought great benefits to patients both for diagnosis and for treatment. There has been an increasing tendency for some of these new imaging modalities to be dependent on highly sophisticated technology. The belief has developed amongst doctors who use these techniques that newer is necessarily better. Just as patients (and some doctors) now often believe that anything done with a laser represents the best that can be offered, so there is a tendency to demand that newer techniques in imaging should always be offered as the preferred option. In urological practice that philosophy is questionable.