CT Abdomen - Video Lesson

So you've heard the saying there's more than one way to skin a cat. Well, there's about a thousand ways to do a CAT scan on the abdomen. In this lesson, we'll be talking about the CT protocol for the routine abdomen and pelvis in the portal Venus phase. This protocol is designed as a general survey of the GI track and the accessory organs, and it's especially valuable for evaluating conditions with unknown causes, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, but it's also good for evaluating trauma and sometimes cancer as well. There are a few indications in the abdomen though that would not be appropriate for this scan. For example, if the patient is having known vascular issues, then we'd want to do a CTA scan in the arterial phase. And it's also true that sometimes if the patient has specific organ problems, then we'd need to do the organ specific protocol. If the patient has known liver issues, then we might want to do the CT liver scan. If they have known pancreas issues, in some cases, we would do the CT pancreas protocol.