More than 80 patients misdiagnosed with Sars may have received a steroid treatment linked to serious bone degeneration, Legco heard yesterday.
Senior Hospital Authority official Daisy Dai Siu-kwan told the Legislative Council's health services panel the estimate was based on hospital pharmacy records.
The records show that some patients thought to have Sars were prescribed steroids and were later confirmed not to have had the disease. But she said some of those patients might have ignored the prescription and not taken the drug.
'We will check the medical records with the doctors [to see] whether those patients actually used the drug before we can confirm the figures,' Dr Dai told legislators.
The authority would contact the 80-odd patients within three weeks to arrange follow-up diagnoses to check their health.
A spokeswoman later said the authority did not have the figures for patients who had received screening for avascular necrosis, a rare bone disease linked to high steroid use.
The disease causes degeneration or death of bone tissue due to a loss of blood supply.