Kevin, M.D - Medical Weblog
Tuesday, December 04, 20076

CT scans will go on

Despite the recent media attention on the association between CT scans and cancer, they will continue to be ordered unabated. With the current litigious climate, physicians are caught between a rock and a hard place:
“In addition, the fear of lawsuits is another reason CT scans are conducted by many physicians. Multiple successful lawsuits have been won against physicians for not performing CT scans, and the nation needs to reform the litigious system in which physicians are punished for using good judgment and not testing.”
When in court, it is much easier to defend the fact that a test was ordered, versus one not being ordered at all.

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Comments

  1. Anonymous Anonymous  

    Kevin, how many times have you been in court where whether or not you did a test was the crux of the case? I presume quite a bit, if that's the conclusion you reached.

    10:31 AM

  2. Blogger Frisbee  

    What is the average absorbed dose from a whole-body CT scan? Is it more than is received from a cross-country plane flight for example?
    Frisbee

    11:43 AM

  3. Blogger Matthew  

    How does a statement of the obvious, that it's easier to defend against an unjustified attack when one ordered an unnecessary test rather than when one didn't, become a conclusion that the author of the post is claiming that he's been in a case where that issue was the "crux of the case"? How would that anecdote even relate?

    Non sequiturs for the win, I guess.

    12:28 PM

  4. Blogger Alla  

    Frisbee, here are some links for you:
    http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ct/risks.html -- radiation dose for common procedures (whole-body CT not included, but head and abdoment CTs are. I am sure you can find whole-body CT dose somewhere else if you want.

    http://www.virrad.eu.org/public/public/nn_exp.html - a dose from 7 hours trans-atlantic flight. It is about the same as a regular chest X-ray or about 500 times less than an abdomen CT or 100 times less than head CT.

    You can figure out whole-body CT on your own.

    Oh, and in case you don't know all exposure to radiation adds up. Including all flights and all X-rays and all CTs.

    12:34 PM

  5. Blogger Frisbee  

    alla
    Of course all radiation exposure adds up, no matter where it comes from. However, a lot over a long period is preferable to the same amount at one time.
    Thanks for the links.

    1:33 PM

  6. Anonymous Anonymous  

    Matthew, it's amazing how many things are "obvious" to you when you know so little about them.

    That's quite a gift.

    4:09 PM

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