Radiation exposure for trauma patients at Creighton University Medical Center who underwent computed tomography scans and other diagnostic tests increased "significantly" over the 10-year period between 2001 and 2010, according to a study presented at the 2014 annual meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
According to the study, the average radiation exposure for the patients in 2001 was 14.9 mSv, but by 2010, the mean dose of radiation exposure had increased to about 24.6 mSv per patient.
"As this study and many other studies show, our reliance on medical radiation continues to grow for diagnostic and therapeutic measures," Deborah Rohner, an assistant professor with the department of anesthesiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine who was not involved with the research, said, according to an article in Anesthesiology News. "Therefore, the potential iatrogenic cancer burden is expected to increase." Article