Radiology, Vol 181, 711-714, Copyright © 1991 by Radiological Society of North America
Skull radiography in the evaluation of acute head trauma: a survey of current practice
DB Hackney
Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104.
A survey was conducted to determine the extent to which skull radiography
continues to be used for the evaluation of head trauma. Of 53 hospitals
with emergency departments and computed tomography (CT) available full
time, only 6% (n = 3) reported that skull radiographs were never a part of
the evaluation of acute head injuries. At more than half of the
institutions, skull radiographs were obtained always or often in cases of
head trauma. High usage rates occurred at teaching and nonteaching
institutions and were not related to the availability of CT or the size of
the hospitals. CT was always employed in cases of severe head trauma, and
skull radiography was frequently used in cases of minor injuries. Magnetic
resonance imaging was rarely, if ever, used for evaluating head trauma.
Skull radiography continues to be employed at a high rate for the
evaluation of head trauma long after it has been demonstrated to provide
little or no useful information in such cases.
