The impact of temporal artery biopsy on surgical practice

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) has the potential to cause irreversible blindness and stroke in affected patients [1–4]. Temporal artery biopsy (TAB) remains the gold standard test for GCA [6–8]. Recent literature suggests that TAB does not change management of patients with suspected GCA and that ultrasound scan (USS) may be sufficient enough alone to confirm the diagnosis [9–11,13]. The aim of this study is to therefore determine the impact of TAB on current surgical practice and emergency theatre services