Cumulative effective dose caused by diagnostic imaging and its associated risk for cancer development in trauma patients referred to the emergency department

Background: The current study aimed to determine the cumulative effective dose caused by diagnostic imaging and its associated risk for cancer development in trauma patients referred to an emergency department. Methods: This study was carried out retrospectively in an emergency department (Kashan, Iran) from April 2015 to October 2015. Then, the types of diagnostic radiologic studies performed on adult trauma patients in their first 24 h upon presentation were recorded. Finally, the cumulative effective dose of trauma patients and its associated risk for cancer development were obtained. Results: In total, the patients received 3323 radiologic examinations including 2169 radiographs and 1154 computed tomography (CT)-scans. The most common type of plain radiographic and CT-scan examinations included anterior posterior and posterior anterior chest as well as head, respectively. The mean cumulative effective dose received by trauma patients referred to the emergency department was 2.47 ± 4.29 mSv. Most of the effective dose was from CT-scan examinations (90.65% of total cumulative effective dose; 2181.91 mSv). The majority of patients (83.40%) received between 0.00 and 5.00 mSv cumulative effective dose. Moreover, the cancer risk per average cumulative effective dose received by trauma patients was 1.01 × 10−4. Conclusions: In current study, the mean cumulative effective dose per each trauma patient (2.47 mSv) was relatively less than that of the other evaluated studies. It was also found that although the number of CT-scans was relatively few compared to plain radiographs, most of the cumulative effective dose of patients resulted from CT-scans; hence, using unnecessary CT-scan examinations should be avoided.