Emergency Radiology group

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by hussien on August 19, 2008 at 12:53am

hi
what the environment you work in it?
what the theater u use?
what kind of machine?
what the risk u intend ?

Permalink Reply by Alessandro Lemos,MD on August 19, 2008 at 3:50am

I'm working at a I level trauma center.
We used a dual-source CT (Siemens Definition) . We aalso have a 4 detector CT.

Permalink Reply by Erin Tate on February 19, 2009 at 10:57pm

As a tech working in a major trauma center I get frustrated at trauma doctors ordering multiple exams/bodygrams when a patient has an abrasion or just pain on palpation in a certain area. A few examples - an MVC with an abrasion on the thigh will get orders for a pelvis (standard trauma protocol), hip, femur and knee. We got a patient in that was the victim of an agg. assault 3 weeks prior and we did plain films of shoulder(3 views), humerus, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand as well as bilateral hips w/ pelvis, femur, knee and tib-fib - in my opinion it seems extremely redundant to image joints multiple times when there is not a specific injury, it seems like the doctors are just grasping at straws or not using their clinical skills. I would like to get a radiologist's point of view on this. Is the extra radiation exposure to the patient justified? Can you read for example - a hip and knee on a femur film or does it require seperate films?

Permalink Reply by Alessandro Lemos,MD on February 20, 2009 at 2:55pm

I agree with you. This is our problem, too..The problem now is that emergency physician are under pressure...in particular for malpractice. So...even if not necessary they ask a lot of x-rays. Extra-radiation dose exposure is not justified, and our colleagues have to be educated on the risk of it. We currently read a hip and knee together, without the need of a separated film.
Regards, Alessandro Lemos.