Question

If you were involved a bicycle accident and brought into the hospital, and they wanted to do a CT scan to determine if anything was broken in your pelvis. What dose would you expect from this, and what would be your increased risk of radiation induced death from this?  State if you would want to do the scan or not, being scientific about your answer in terms of risk.

Answer 1

As the CT scan is done for the pelvis, thus the dose in this case might be 10 mSv (millisieverts).

There will be slightly increased risk of radiation induced death due to cancer from this. The increase in the possibility of fatal cancer is approximately 1chance in 2000.

Yes, I would want to do the CT scan because of the following reasons–

• It detects muscle, tissue and bones injury that a regular x-ray can't.
• It helps to locate internal bleeding and find its source.
• It finds whether there is any injuries to the internal organs.
• It helps in diagnosis as well as treatment even before apperance of any symptoms and pain due to accident.