Ionizing radiation from computed tomography versus anesthesia for magnetic resonance imaging in infants and children: patient safety considerations

In the context of health care, risk assessment is the identification, evaluation and estimation of risk related to a particular clinical situation or intervention compared to accepted medical practice standards. The goal of risk assessment is to determine an acceptable level of risk for a given clin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatric radiology 2018-01, Vol.48 (1), p.21-30
Main Authors: Callahan, Michael J., MacDougall, Robert D., Bixby, Sarah D., Voss, Stephan D., Robertson, Richard L., Cravero, Joseph P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anesthesia
Anxiety
Children
Computed tomography
Exposure
Health risks
Imaging
Infants
Ionizing radiation
Magnetic resonance imaging
Medical imaging
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neuroblastoma
Neuroradiology
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear Medicine
Oncology
Parents
Patients
Pediatrics
Radiation effects
Radiology
Review
Risk assessment
Ultrasound
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In the context of health care, risk assessment is the identification, evaluation and estimation of risk related to a particular clinical situation or intervention compared to accepted medical practice standards. The goal of risk assessment is to determine an acceptable level of risk for a given clinical treatment or intervention in association with the provided clinical circumstances for a patient or group of patients. In spite of the inherent challenges related to risk assessment in pediatric cross-sectional imaging, the potential risks of ionizing radiation and sedation/anesthesia in the pediatric population are thought to be quite small. Nevertheless both issues continue to be topics of discussion concerning risk and generate significant anxiety and concern for patients, parents and practicing pediatricians. Recent advances in CT technology allow for more rapid imaging with substantially lower radiation exposures, obviating the need for anesthesia for many indications and potentially mitigating concerns related to radiation exposure. In this review, we compare and contrast the potential risks of CT without anesthesia against the potential risks of MRI with anesthesia, and discuss the implications of this analysis on exam selection, providing specific examples related to neuroblastoma surveillance imaging.
ISSN:0301-0449
1432-1998
DOI:10.1007/s00247-017-4023-6