Does the incidence of thoracic aortic injury warrant the routine use of chest computed tomography in children?

BACKGROUND: Thoracic aortic injury is a potentially life-threatening injury associated with rapid deceleration mechanisms. Diagnosis is made by chest computed tomography (CT), which is associated with a risk of radiation-induced malignancy. We sought to determine the incidence of aortic injuries in the pediatric population to weigh against the risk of CT imaging.

METHODS: The Pediatric Health Information Systems was queried for children ≤18 years with discharge diagnosis code of thoracic aortic injury (901.0) between December 2004 and 2014. Data abstracted included patient age, gender, diagnosis and procedure codes, and discharge disposition, where available. We also queried for imaging codes to determine what type of chest imaging the child received.

RESULTS: Between December 2004 and 2014, 311,850 children were admitted to Pediatric Health Information Systems hospitals with traumatic injury. Of these patients, 46 (0.015%) were coded with a thoracic aortic injury and an accompanying E-code. Twenty-seven patients (58.7%) were male, and the median age was 13 years. The most common mechanism of injury was motor vehicle collision (63%, n = 29). Eighteen hospitals (41.9%) had no patients with a thoracic aortic injury in the 10-year period. In children with a thoracic aortic injury, the mortality rate was 11% (n = 5) and 22 (47.8%) underwent a chest CT during their hospitalization. Forty percent (124,909) of all trauma patients underwent chest CT, with a positive rate for aortic injury of 1.8/10,000. The reported estimated cancer risk from a chest CT scan is 25/10,000 for girls and 7.5/10, 000 in boys, greater than the positive CT rate.

CONCLUSION: Thoracic aortic injuries are rare in children in the United States. The risk of cancer associated with screening chest CT is greater than the likelihood of identifying an aortic injury. Therefore, screening chest CT scans are unwarranted in injured children.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic/Care Management, level IV.