Most patients never worry about radiation exposure when having medical imaging procedures and have limited accurate knowledge about radiation sources or equivalent risks.1 Physicians also appear to be largely unaware of the risks involved in subjecting patients to multi-detector computed tomographic (MDCT) scanning, with only 9% of referring physicians and 47% of radiologists aware of the increased risk of cancer from MDCT radiation dosage.2 The enhancement of patient and physician knowledge of radiation exposure is essential and critical. The National Academy of Science report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BIER VII) estimated that a single population dose of 10 mSv is associated with a lifetime risk for developing a solid cancer or leukaemia by 1 in 1000 exposures.3

Our level 1 trauma centre emergency department recently installed a General Electric Lightspeed VCT MDCT scanner. This scanner has the ability to display the milligray (mGy)i and dose-length product (DLP) of each CT scan performed. We have found that, on average, the radiation exposure for trauma screening tests are: CT head, 70.42 mGy; CT …