%0 Journal Article
%T Effective radiation dose reduction in computed tomography-guided spinal injections: a prospective, comparative study with technical considerations
%A Juraj Artner
%A Friederike Lattig
%A Heiko Reichel
%A Balkan Cakir
%J Orthopedic Reviews
%D 2012
%I PAGEPress Publications
%R 10.4081/or.2012.e24
%X Despite the good general patient acceptance, high patient comfort, safety and precision in the needle placement, exposure to radiation in computed tomography (CT)- guided spinal interventions remains a serious concern, and is often used to argue against its use. The aim of this study was to determine the technical possibilities of reducing the radiation dose in CT-guided epidural and periradicular injections in lumbar spine. We evaluated the possibilities of reducing radiation dose to the patient and operator during CT-guided injections on the lumbar spine using the following steps: significant reduction of the tube current and energy used for the topogram-acquisition, narrowing the area of interest in spiral CTmode and reduction of tube current and radiation energy in the final intervention mode. Fifty-three CT-guided spinal injections were performed in the lumbar spine (34 epidural lumbar, 19 lumbar periradicular) using a low-dose protocol in non-obese patients and compared with 1870 CT-guided injections from the year 2010, when a standard dose protocol was used. Technical considerations on radiation dose reduction were provided. An average dose reduction of 85% was achieved using the low-dose protocol in CTguided epidural and periradicular injections in lumbar spine without showing any effect on safety or precision.
%K CT-guided spinal injections
%K periradicular
%K injection
%K computed tomography
%K lumbar spine
%K low dose protocol
%U http://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/or/article/view/4303