Vytenis Ratkūnas, Natalija Palubinskienė, Saulius Lukoševičius
Abstract
In this article the main reasons are discussed for often performing brain computed tomography (CT) for the same patients in The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS) Kaunas clinics Emergency Department (ED); for these patients CT exam is performed more than once a year. Literature related to rationalization and reduction of brain CT exams for all patients is reviewed. The purpose of this study is to find connection between brain CT rate, examination reasons and patients admission to the hospital. For this study, data of 131 patients was analyzed and out of this group 123 patients were picked out (830 brain CT exams). Statistical significance level a = 0.05. Average number of brain CT exams is 6.75 (±3.939) per patient. For 52.8 percent of patients were performed more than 5 brain CT exams. The major reason for examination: head trauma (56.63 percent) and brain vascular disorders (28.55 percent). There is no statistically significant connection between brain CT rate in ED and patients’ admission rate.
Keyword(s): computed tomography; convulsive syndrome; brain trauma; brain vascular disorders; brain tumor.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.101
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