ACR Appropriateness Criteria for Pediatric Back Pain Updated for 2026 — Patient-Friendly Version

The ACR has released a 2026 update to its Appropriateness Criteria for back pain in children, now including a plain-language patient-friendly summary to improve shared decision-making around imaging choices.

• Guideline update covers imaging appropriateness for pediatric back pain; patient-facing language added to support informed consent and shared decision-making.
• No new primary numerical findings reported in the source snippet; specific recommendation changes (e.g., grade or modality shifts) are not detailed in the abstract.
• Applicable to pediatric patients; key limitation of the summary format is that it may oversimplify nuanced clinical scenarios handled in the full criteria document.

RadPigeon summaries are original and for information only. They are not clinical advice.