Neck injury follow-up MRI may cost patients thousands in unnecessary exams
Unconscious patients suffering from blunt neck injuries may benefit more from a CT scan without a follow-up MRI, reducing excessive costs, according to recent a news release regarding a study led by Ajay Malhotra, MBBS, MD, associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at Yale.
Published online March 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found the average cost of a follow-up MRI was $14,185 and made no difference in health benefits for neck injury patients who had the exam following a standard diagnostic CT scan.
"Magnetic resonance imaging may have a lower health benefit and a higher cost compared with no follow-up after a normal computed tomographic finding in patients with obtunded blunt trauma of the cervical spine," according to Malhotra and colleagues.
In the future, study findings may be informative for emergency care physicians and healthcare policymakers in regards to clinical decision making and healthcare legislation and cost, said Malhotra in a prepared statement.
A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.