CT scan use in emergency rooms increased 330% in 12 years

A review of national data from 1996 through 2007 has revealed a sharp increase in the use of CT scans to diagnose illnesses in emergency departments, according to a University of Michigan Health System study published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

This rate of increase was 11 times faster than the rate of emergency department (ED) visits during the same period, the study noted, adding that the use of CT scans increased significantly over time after being less common early in the study period — with only 3.2% of emergency patients receiving CT scans in 1996 compared to 13.9% of emergency patients in 2007.

“This means that by 2007, 1 in 7 ED patients got a CT scan,” study author Keith Kocher MD, MPH, stated in a University of Michigan Health System press release. “It also means that about 25% of all the CT scans done in the United States are performed in the ED.”

Using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey compiled by the Centers for Disease Control, the researchers reviewed 1.29 billion weighted records of emergency visits between 1996 and 2007 — 97.1 million of which included patients who received a CT scan.

According to the study results, patients who received a CT scan in the beginning of the study had a 25% chance of being admitted to the hospital directly from the ED. By 2007, this rate was halved. For all of the 20 most common reasons patients came to the emergency room for treatment, the study reportedly found that CT use increased during the study period, with numbers increasing most among patients with abdominal pain, flank pain, chest pain and shortness of breath.

Rates of CT use were also reported to have risen most dramatically among older adults.

Reference:

Kocher K, Meurer WJ, Scott PA, et al. National trends in use of computed tomography in the emergency department. Ann Emerg Med. 2011. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2011.05.020

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