Premium
Portable Head Computed Tomography Scanner–Technology and Applications: Experience with 3421 Scans
Author(s) -
Carlson Andrew P.,
Yonas Howard
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2011.00621.x
Subject(s) - medicine , radiology , intensive care unit , angiography , scanner , computed tomography , head injury , emergency department , nuclear medicine , surgery , intensive care medicine , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science
OBJECTIVE The use of head computed tomography (CT) is standard in the management of acute brain injury; however, there are inherent risks of transport of critically ill patients. Portable CT can be brought to the patient at any location.METHODS We describe the clinical use of a portable head CT scanner (CereTom: NeuroLogica: Danvers, MA) that can be brought to the patient's bedside or to other locations such as the operating room or angiography suite.RESULTS Between June of 2006 and December of 2009, a total of 3421 portable CTs were performed. A total of 3278 (95.8%) were performed in the neuroscience intensive care unit (ICU) for an average of 2.6 neuroscience ICU CT scans per day. Other locations where CTs were performed included other ICUs ( n = 97), the operating room ( n = 53), the emergency department ( n = 1), and the angiography suite ( n = 2). Most studies were non‐contrasted head CT, though other modalities including xenon/CT, contrasted CT, and CT angiography were performed.CONCLUSION Portable head CT can reliably and consistently be performed at the patient's bedside. This should lead to decreased transportation‐related morbidity and improved rapid decision making in the ICU, OR, and other locations. Further studies to confirm this clinical advantage are needed.