Patient Exposure During Radiological Procedures

What should we do about parents of infant patients that are anxious about radiological examinations?

その他の検査同様に、Interact with the parents in a manner that clearly convey a sense of acknowledging their feelings of worry about their child.

In many cases, when a CT scan is performed due to an illness or external injury, it is not until later that parents become worried about whether or not the action was really necessary. If so, affirm the parents' action by first clarifying what triggered their anxiety, such as they were only going along with what their personal physician told them or they themselves asked their personal physician to have the examination performed. Once their sense of personal responsibility is relieved, then they will become more receptive to a calm rational explanation. Many people seem to think that radiation effects are far stronger in children than in adults, but epidemiological surveys indicate that it is only 2 or 3 times higher, at the most (K. Ozasa et al., Radiat Res. 229-243, 177:2012). Also explain that children are only exposed to the radiation dose levels necessary for their body size and explain that the decision to perform the examination was made on a clinically rational basis. If the parents requested the examination, convince them that the exposure was not unnecessary by having the parents recall the sense of relief they felt after they received accurate diagnostic results from the examination.