Eliminating unnecessary radiation exposure from spinal radiography | Children's National

Eliminating unnecessary radiation exposure from spinal radiography | Children's National

Eliminating unnecessary radiation exposure from spinal radiography

If a child arrives at the pediatric orthopaedic specialist for an idiopathic scoliosis evaluation without an adequate radiographic image of his or her spine, it’s often necessary to order yet another imaging study for accurate assessment.

A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons found that in a 6 month period, almost half (43 percent) of patients referred for evaluation required a repeat radiograph due to missing or poor quality existing images. “Repeating the radiograph means these kids received another exposure to radiation, too,” says Matthew Oetgen, M.D., the study’s lead author.