Key Messages
What Is the Issue?
- Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) is examining the role of portable CT use in Canada.
- Conventional CT scanners are large, costly, and fixed installations that require specialized infrastructure, such as radiation shielding and high-voltage power.
- Patients often need to be transported from other parts of a health care facility — such as the intensive care unit (ICU) or emergency department — to centralized radiology units to access conventional CT. This process can be logistically complex, clinically risky, and resource-intensive, particularly for patients who are critically ill or immobilized.
- Portable CT addresses these challenges by enabling diagnostic imaging at the point of care (e.g., at the patient’s bedside or in the operating room).
- While further evaluation is needed, portable CT may offer a more accessible and cost-effective imaging option in certain settings and clinical scenarios.
- The mobility and relatively lower infrastructure requirements for CT scanners suggest potential value in rural, remote, or underserved areas where conventional CT access is limited.
What Did We Do?
- CDA-AMC conducted a limited literature search to summarize information on the technical features, clinical uses, and operational considerations of portable CT in hospital settings. The goal was to describe CT technology and to identify the main uses of portable CT.
What Did We Find?
- Portable CT units most commonly used in ICUs, operating rooms, and emergency departments are compact and manoeuvrable and bring imaging to the patient.
- While portable CT units may have lower resolution compared to conventional units, it generally provides clinically sufficient image quality for use in critical care, emergency, and intraoperative settings, for some clinical indications.
- Radiation exposure levels are generally safe, especially with appropriate shielding, although studies have produced variable results depending on the clinical setting, shielding methods, and scanner models used.
- While portable CT imaging offers advantages, several potential risks and operational considerations may need to be considered including maintenance of acceptable radiation exposure, overuse of imaging, and possible infection control risks.
- Portable CT reduces the burden on ICU and transport staff as they no longer have to transport patients to the imaging suite, but this may increase the workload for radiology staff, particularly medical radiation technologists who may have to spend more time bringing the imaging to the patient.
- Portable CT may have the most clinical utility for patients who are critically ill, immobilized, in surgery, or infectious. Pediatric patients and patients in rural or remote communities may also benefit.
- Portable CT units cost less than fixed systems and require minimal setup, making them well-suited for hospitals with infrastructure or budget constraints.