ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Can patients apply the Ottawa ankle rules to themselves?
Academic Department of Emergency Care, Emergency Department, United Bristol Healthcare Trust, Bristol, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr J R Benger, Academic Department of Emergency Care, Emergency Department, United Bristol Healthcare Trust, Bristol BS2 8HW, UK; jonathan.benger{at}ubht.nhs.uk
Objective: To determine whether patients with an ankle injury obtained the same results as clinicians when applying the Ottawa ankle rules (a validated clinical decision rule) to themselves.
Methods: Patients aged >15 years presenting to an inner city emergency department within 48 h of an ankle injury were asked to assess their own injury using the Ottawa ankle rules. The results of their self-assessment were compared with those of a treating clinician.
Results: Poor interobserver agreement was found between patients and clinicians.
Conclusions: Making the Ottawa ankle rule more widely available to the general public is unlikely to reduce healthcare demand. Indeed, given the apparently low specificity of the rule, demand could actually increase as a result.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Primary survey
- Simon Carley
Emerg. Med. J. 2008 25: 709.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- web only appendices
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
