CT Scans May Put Kids' Health at Risk

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel noted that according to a study in the journal Radiology, "children underwent five times more CT scans" during emergency department visits in "2008 than they did 13 years before -- and 90 percent of the exams were done in hospitals that do not specialize in pediatrics." Perhaps that is "not too surprising in an age in which computed tomography...has proven revolutionary in the diagnosis of all kinds of injuries and ailments." But, with these rewards "come significant risks, especially for children most susceptible to them, and the danger doesn't seem to be lighting much of a fire, for parents or the doctors they're trusting with their children's lives."