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Surgical performance for specialties undertaking temportal artery biopsies: who should perform them?
  1. Gavin D Galloway1,
  2. Bernhard Klebe2,
  3. Paul Riordan-Eva3
  1. 1Ophthalmology Department, West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3QZ, UK
  2. 2Department of Internal Medicine, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury CT1 3NG, UK
  3. 3Department of Ophthalmology, King's College Hospital, London SE5 9RS, UK
  1. Correspondence to: Mr Gavin Galloway; gavgal{at}doctors.org.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.86.2.250

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    The management of temporal arteritis carries a large burden on resources and commits the patient to long term anti-inflammatory medication with its concomitant side effects. We undertook a retrospective survey of the recent surgical practice at King's College Hospital, London. This was to compare performance for the specialties involved in biopsying temporal arteries. We are unaware of any previous publication specifically addressing surgical efficiency. Biopsies of long specimens could help reduce morbidity and mortality associated with false negative results and avoid further unnecessary and expensive investigation.1–3 Information was obtained by cross referencing clinical, surgical, and histopathological records for all the temporal artery biopsies done during a 2 year period from March 1998 to March 2000. Arterial specimen length was taken as the performance indicator. …

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