Optimum radiographic examination for consideration of compensation awards: III. Knee, hand and foot.

In a large Veterans Administration (VA) hospital, a prospective study was undertaken to determine the optimum number of radiographic projections needed to assess applicants for VA compensation for knee, hand, and foot diseases or injury claimed to be service-related. Results show that the final radiographic assessment could be made in all 535 (100%) of the knee examinations using two views (anteroposterior and lateral), all 181 (100%) of the hand examinations using one view (anteroposterior), and all 223 (100%) of the foot examinations using two views (anteroposterior and lateral). Extrapolating these results to data on compensation examinations performed in the entire VA system (fiscal year 1978), it was concluded that limiting the radiographic examinations of the knee, hand, and foot to these views would eliminate 91,000 radiographs in the evaluation of 119,000 applicants and yield an annual savings of about $500,000.