CT scan risk highlighted

Wellington: Doctors in emergency departments are being told to think twice before ordering a CT scan for children, under newly released head injury guidelines.

The guidelines for clinicians in New Zealand and Australia lay out the best strategies for diagnosing and treating mildtomoderate head injuries such as concussion.

Prof Stuart Dalziel, Child Health Research Cure Kids chairman at the University of Auckland and a paediatric emergency physician at Starship, contributed to the guidelines, alongside specialists from Australia and New Zealand.

He said CT scans had not always been used consistently across hospitals, and could cause cancer in from one in 5000 to one in 10,000 cases.