HKCR Referral Guidelines

These evidence-based guidelines are developed to assist clinical decision making in the appropriate utilization of radiology diagnostic and interventional procedures, and to enhance the standard of patient care. Since the first edition there have been further advances in various radiology diagnostic and interventional procedures and this has been reflected in the guidelines.

This latest version of the guidelines has evolved from the first edition and includes a total of 64 chapters arranged in 11 organ systems. These chapters have been judiciously edited and integrated into a unifying structure with most chapters composing of an algorithm followed by remarks and a list of references. The algorithm and remarks are complementary to each other and should not be used separately. With the exception of the paediatric guidelines, the guidelines in all other chapters apply to adult cases only.

The recommendations in the guidelines are best utilized if used while taken into consideration the specified clinical context of each individual patient and the availability of accessible resources. These guidelines should not be deemed inclusive of all proper methods of utilization of radiology diagnostic and interventional procedures or exclusive of other methods of application of radiology procedures that are reasonably directed towards similar standard of patient care. These guidelines are not intended to replace the consultation with the radiologist or nuclear medicine physician. Majority of these guidelines provide recommendations in the stage of diagnosis and readers should refer to other guidelines for further treatment of patients.

These guidelines were prepared with the most current information available to the Hong Kong College of Radiologists at the time of publication. It is the responsibility of the user to evaluate and determine the suitability of the information described herein based on their own assessment of the most current information available at the time of application of these guidelines.