Thoracic CTs are not all that sensitive for thoracic aortic injury- our
scanner (admittedly not a spiral scanner) has missed a couple lately. Would
a 'normal' CT thorax have prevented thoracotomy?
Concerning abdo CT, I might have to go along with the radiologist on this
one (although maybe for different reasons). Depends on the indications for
CT. There's not much of a gap between 'needs further imaging' and 'needs
laparotomy'. A good surgeon will have a pretty high pick up rate and may
avoid wasting time in the scanner (unless we're moving to 'no laparotomy
without a scan', which might make sense).
Matt Dunn
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