CBCT in ENT

[neriticzone]

ENT intern here. I’m off service and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen conebeam ct in the clinic before and it’s pretty neat, was wondering if any pp ent groups are using this routinely in office for sinuses, t-bone imaging? Seems like it would save patient time and money.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[HighPriest]

ENT intern here. I’m off service and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen conebeam ct in the clinic before and it’s pretty neat, was wondering if any pp ent groups are using this routinely in office for sinuses, t-bone imaging? Seems like it would save patient time and money.

Yes. Lots of places. It is usually cheaper for the patient, lower radiation. You can’t really see brain detail, but frankly that’s a good thing because you aren’t responsible for it if you can’t see it. It’s ok for tbones, but for the same reason (not high resolution) it sometimes isn’t the best. Patients love it. It’s not enclosed which they also love. Weight limits vary but ours is 350 lbs, so sometimes that can be a problem…unfortunately… the local radiology group hates it. But honestly I think I can read a sinus CT better than them, so that’s ok.

 

[Wordead]

Yes. Lots of places. It is usually cheaper for the patient, lower radiation. You can’t really see brain detail, but frankly that’s a good thing because you aren’t responsible for it if you can’t see it. It’s ok for tbones, but for the same reason (not high resolution) it sometimes isn’t the best. Patients love it. It’s not enclosed which they also love. Weight limits vary but ours is 350 lbs, so sometimes that can be a problem…unfortunately… the local radiology group hates it. But honestly I think I can read a sinus CT better than them, so that’s ok.

I assume you cant get navigation protocols right? So do you repeat a dedicated CT if you're taking someone to surgery?

 

[HighPriest]

I assume you cant get navigation protocols right? So do you repeat a dedicated CT if you're taking someone to surgery?

We can do IGS scans for fusion. I don’t know if I would trust it if I was looking for, say, a minute skull base defect or trying to work around a small orbital defect, but for polyp cases or standard frontals I think it works fine. If I was doing something higher risk I would probably get a better scan, but usually you know or suspect that before you scan them.

I also don’t know if every CB scanner can do scans for image guidance. I do know that we had the rep come in and verify that the IGS scan was within their recommended limits.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

Yes. We have one in our practice. It's more than sufficient for most things. Good enough quality for most IG cases.
Upside if you practice shady (and believe me I've seen it)- you can read the scans any way that you want. Gives you carte blanche to operate on anyone that you want. Yes, I'm currently jaded about the professionalism of some of the people that do this job.

 

[HighPriest]

Upside if you practice shady (and believe me I've seen it)- you can read the scans any way that you want. Gives you carte blanche to operate on anyone that you want. Yes, I'm currently jaded about the professionalism of some of the people that do this job.

This is very true, unfortunately.