TESTING – What to Expect For Your Child’s Sinus CT Scan

by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD

How Can I Prepare My Child for their CT Scan?

How to Prepare Your Child for Their Sinus CT Scan

A couple weeks back I reviewed How to “Read” a CT Scan. That article grew out of the fact that I see many families show up in my clinic with a pack of CT scans, and nobody has ever reviewed the CT scans with the family. It is important to understand what CT scans (or any other medical test) can and can-not show you.

Today, let’s review how you can optimize your time spent getting your child’s CT scan.

Get the best quality scan that you can. Help your child get through the process without being scared.

There are several things that you can do to help your child make it through the process in comfort.

To start, tell your child in simple terms why their sinus CT scan is necessary. Explain that it won’t hurt, and that the machine does not touch their body. They can simply lie on a moving bed that slides into the donut ring.

Dress your child in comfortable clothing with no metal snaps, belt buckles, or zippers. For Sinus CT scan, remove any metal hair clips or jewelry (earrings). Remember: even plastic zippers usually have a metal zipper pull tab.

Holding Still

Because CT scans are very fast these days – often less than a couple minutes – many children are able to hold still for the entire procedure, without any sedative. But some scans can take longer. In order to see the fine details of the sinuses, your child may need to remain motionless, absolutely still, for a longer time.

Depending on your child’s age, sedation may be necessary. If so, numbing cream (for the IV) will usually be applied to the back of the hand after checking in.

Practice at Home

Regardless of your child’s age, you can help to prepare them at home.

Tell them about the procedure, why it is important, in language that they will understand. You can even arrange a make-believe CT scanner, have them lie in it and hold still for 1 whole minute – time it. Extend it to 2 whole minutes. Make a game of it.

Repeat that they will be safe and secure. Repeat that you will stay with them the entire time.

Letting that thought alone to sink in will do wonders to reassure them.

What Should I Expect When We Arrive at the Hospital?

After checking in the technologist will greet you and explain the procedure in detail. They can answer any questions that you or your child may have.

What Happens During the Procedure?

The technologist helps to position and secure your child on the movable bed that slides into and out of the CT scanner. The position for a sinus CT scan is usually flat on the back. The motorized bed may make buzzing sounds as it moves in and out of the CT ring; the scanning itself may make buzzing or clicking noises. Reassure your child that they are safe and secure. Everything is okay.

If your child needs sedation, an IV will usually be started at this time.

Unless you are pregnant, you may be able to stay in the room with your child during the procedure.

What are the Risks of CT Scans?

CT scans use radiation like conventional x-rays. For children, the accepted standard is for reduced radiation during these exams, and also limiting the number of scans. Essentially, reducing the number of scans as much as possible.

There is an increased lifetime risk of cancer due to x-ray radiation exposure from any source.

Such concerns are greater for children because they are growing, and growing tissues are more sensitive to radiation effects, and children have a longer life expectancy than adults. A child’s smaller size also needs to be taken into consideration for the CT scan “protocol,” and the radiation dose must be reduced for a child’s CT scan.

To give you some sense of how much radiation we are talking about, your average exposure to radiation is about 325 mrem (milli-rems) per year. The average Sinus CT scan for a child is about 100 mrem. Over the course of a lifetime, that will amount to less than ½ of 1% of their total exposure.

Not much, but it is always a good policy to minimize any radiation exposure. For this reason, I take my decision to order a CT scan for a child very seriously, and only do so after long consideration of all the indications.

Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not use radiation, it does not provide nearly the same quality of images for the fine bones or the soft tissue surrounding the sinues,  as CT scans for imaging the sinuses.

That’s it.

You may find that the CT scanner at a dedicated Children’s Hospital is painted with puppies or teddy bears. Nice.

Please use Reply below to tell us about your experience with your child’s CT scan. Was it done at a general hospital? At a Children’s Hospital? At an outpatient imaging center? How did it go?

Resources:

This is a follow up from a previous article on this blog, TESTING: CT Imaging of Your Child’s Sinuses at http://wp.me/pR4iB-yj

Annual radiation dose estimates, from the American Nuclear Society: http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/

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Tags: childhood sinusitis, pediatric Ear Nose and Throat, Pediatric ENT, pediatric sinusiits, pediatric sinusitis, pediatric sinusits, sinus CT scan