Just Pediatrics: Pediatric Minor Head Injury, Computed Tomography Imaging, and Evidence-Based Practice in Emergency Departments

摘要

Since its inception in the 1970s, the use of computed tomography (CT) imaging in the emergency department (ED) has become a primary instrument for diagnosis of patients with complaints across the spectrum of chronic health symptoms to major trauma (Linton et al, 2011). The rapid spread of availability of CT imaging and demand for new applications for its use, as well as the speed and reliability of CT scan results, has driven the number of CT scans performed annually in the United States to approximately 80 million (Sierzenski et al., 2014). Increased use of CT imaging in the ED and the substantially increased exposure to ionizing radiation have lead to concern for especially vulnerable populations of patients, including pediatric patients, who receive CT scans for often benign diagnoses (Sierzenski et al., 2014).