Study Best To Wait Before Performing X Rays On Kids Brains

Doctors use x-rays or CT scans to look inside of the body to determine if something is not right. For example, if someone has suffered a head injury, a CT scan is often used to determine how serious the injury is and if the person will need treatment.

But while CT scans, short for computed tomography, are extremely helpful for these reasons, doctors think that they could end up causing cancer years down the road. Therefore, especially with children, there is a reluctance to conduct a CT scans when it is not necessary to do so. But does not ordering the CT scan also put the child at risk of having a serious brain injury that is left untreated? A recent study suggests no.

The study, which was published in this month’s Pediatrics journal, found that observing some kids who had suffered a possible brain injury before deciding to order or not order a CT scan could be a way to safely reduce the number of scans on children.

A doctor at Children’s Hospital Boston who worked on the study concluded that it is probably a good idea to wait and observe before ordering a CT scan in children who have gone through something that put them at risk of a brain injury, but do not demonstrate serious symptoms of a brain injury.

The waiting and observing makes sense because when the child arrives at the emergency room the symptoms might not have had a chance to develop yet, or the symptoms could be slightly present, but not absolute enough to decide on a CT scan, the doctor said.

The goal is to use a CT scan when it’s needed, and to avoid the radiation when it’s unnecessary, another doctor from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario explained.

However, a question still exists as to how long the doctor should observe the young patient before making a final decision. Ultimately, it could possibly result in malpractice if a decision is made to not do the CT scan too early and a brain injury in need of treatment actually exists.

Source: Reuters, “A little waiting may be good for head-injured kids,” Genevra Pittman, 5/9/2011.