Sneak peek on CT Scans in Children: How much of this scanning for children  is actually necessary?

Dr.Awad Mohamed Elkhadir

Volume : V, Issue : I, January - 2016

Sneak peek on CT Scans in Children: How much of this scanning for children is actually necessary?

Dr. Awad Mohamed Elkhadir

Abstract :

Background and Aims of study: Computed Tomography (CT) is a diagnostic imaging modality, providing physicians with information which can help in diagnosis of serious diseases. CT scan has numerous benefits in a wide range of clinical cases. However, these benefits unfortunately are concomitant with increased exposure to radiation. The aims of this research are to look iefly at the situation of imaging the children by CT in the radiology department in King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to measure the increasing frequency of children�s exposure to CT scans in this department to protect children from the risk of unnecessary exposure, reduce the wastage of manpower and resources, avoid wasting the time of the patient, and ensure the selection of the most appropriate diagnostic procedure. Method: A retrospective study conducted in the Department of Radiology, KAUH between 1 January and 31 December 2012.There were 690 children scanned by CT for different parts of the body, their data reviewed and analysed from radiology records to form the sample of the study. Results: The study revealed that there were 51.7% of radiological findings for CT scan considered significant and 48.3% non–significant.This result show that a huge percentage of children were given unnecessary exposure to radiation among those who received CT scans from the department in which the study was carried out. Conclusion: From the study, it is concluded that most CT scan done for children were not justified as well as there were more radiological findings not confirmed the clinical diagnosis. However,these CT scans are important in most of the cases. Hence, there is a big concern about the increasing requests for unnecessary CT scan Therefore, it is necessary to paediatricians to be careful in requesting of CT scans unless it is necessary