European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

CT SCAN FOR HEAD INJURY- IS IT A TOY TO PLAY WITH ?

*Dr. Snehansu Pan, Dr. Tanoy Sarkar and Dr. Sinjini Pan

ABSTRACT

A large numbers of patients come to surgery clinic with a request of CT Scan of head and brain for indications best known to them, more than these patients come with a CT scan plate and/or report and ask what is wrong in that. Almost always the report is „within normal limits‟ or „no significant abnormality detected‟. We conducted an observational study involving 120 patients attending the OPD of our institution to find out why these unnecessary CT scans are being done, as it is a burden to the health infrastructures and health budget. More importantly, it exposes the brain, particularly brain of children, to ionizing radiation. We know that ionizing radiation is the only known aetiological factor for brain tumours. We found that 55.83% cases had no indications, overall in 68.33% cases CT was done without the advice of a medical person. Among the 120 cases 85% has no findings. CT scan is a very useful investigation modality but the risks and adverse effects must be be balanced against the benefit to the patient in terms of increased diagnostic yield.

Keywords: Computed Tomography, Ionizing radiation, Brain tumours, head injury.