TY - JOUR T1 - How Are We Handling Fluoroscopy-Guided Lumbar Puncture Requests? A Nationwide Survey of Practice Trends JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. SP - 1827 LP - 1833 DO - 10.3174/ajnr.A7684 VL - 43 IS - 12 AU - T.J. Richards AU - J.C. Durieux AU - A.P. Nayate Y1 - 2022/12/01 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/43/12/1827.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Referrals to perform fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures by neuroradiologists have increased. The purpose of our study was to determine the management of fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture referrals in different practice settings.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We sent an online questionnaire to neuroradiologists and radiology trainees between May and June 2020 to survey their handling of fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture requests, preprocedural work-up, and the use of physician extenders/trainees to perform fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures, among other questions. Categories were compared using ORs.RESULTS: Of the 123 US respondents, 81.3% were in combined academic and 18.7% in combined private practice groups. Regarding fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture referrals, 27.6% of respondents did not require a bedside lumbar puncture attempt before a fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture. Of private practice, 95.7%, and of academic respondents, 85.0%, were often asked to perform fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures by clinicians because of the clinician’s lack of procedural competence. Of those, 74.8% stated that they always or sometimes agreed to the request. 41.5% of respondents stated that they would always comply with patients’ requests for a fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture without a bedside lumbar puncture attempt, a 5.26 times higher likelihood (95% CI, 2.04–14.29) for private practice respondents. To perform fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures, 32.0% of academic respondents and 47.8% of private practice respondents use physician extenders. 75.0% of academic respondents reported that trainees perform >50% of their fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures.CONCLUSIONS: This survey demonstrates that many academic and private practice neuroradiologists engage in practices that may promote an increase in fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture referrals including not requiring a non-image-guided lumbar puncture attempt, complying with clinicians’ requests for a fluoroscopy-guided lumbar puncture due to lack of competence in performing lumbar punctures, and fulfilling patient requests for fluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctures.FGLPfluoroscopy-guided lumbar punctureLPlumbar puncture ER -