Despite only a small increase in the prevalence of life-threatening conditions and no change in admission rate
To assess national trends in emergency department (ED) use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for injured patients, researchers analyzed data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for 1998 through 2007; 20% of 325,569 ED visits involved injury-related conditions.
Use of CT or MRI during the 65,376 injury-related visits increased significantly from 6% in 1998 to 15% in 2007. However, the prevalence of life-threatening conditions (skull or cervical spine fracture, intracranial hemorrhage, liver or spleen laceration) increased only slightly (but significantly), from 1.7% in 1998 to 2.0% in 2007, and the proportion of patients who were admitted to a hospital or an intensive care unit did not chan…