[The usefulness of thoracic computerized tomography in patients in an intensive care unit]

Performing thoracic CT scanning in critically ill patients can be cumbersome and may have detrimental effects on the condition of the patient. We retrospectively analysed the clinical data of 46 patients who were examined over a period of 4.5 years. The thoracic CT scanning was judged useful in 40 patients (87%) and beneficial for 23 (50%) of these. The principal indications for the investigation are: suspected pulmonary abscess, suspected mediastinitis, precise localisation of an intrathoracic lesion prior to surgery, difficulty in the evaluation of the pulmonary parenchyma in patients with deforming thoracic kyphoscoliosis, suspected trapped pleural fluid and a suspected thoracic focus of sepsis. Transport had no detrimental effects on any of the patients. If the decision to undertake CT scanning is arrived at jointly by the radiologist and intensive care physicians, CT scanning is useful and can be performed safely if transport is undertaken by an experienced team.