07 March 2022
Why an MRI is Better Than X-Rays for a Car Accident Injury
When a person goes through the trauma of a car accident, the first thing medical staff will do after stabilizing the patient externally is to assess physical damage internally. That means utilizing medical tools that can see inside the body without causing additional harm or stress. The most common a Houston personal injury lawyer often sees in accident cases would be an x-ray, which allows doctors to see the status of a patient’s bones. Alternatively, there are two other tools available: the CT scan and the MRI scan.
Good Tools Can Be Missed
In most cases, patients are under so much stress, they simply trust the doctor at hand to make the right decisions. And all three tests can and do provide diagnostic information that gives valuable internal information about the patient’s status. However, the MRI scan has specific capabilities in spotting issues with soft tissue that’s not possible with an x-ray or other choices. The MRI scan works through magnetic resonance, producing a view of organs and assemblies within the body that are translated by a computer and then visualized. This tool is ideal for seeing soft tissue damage that won’t be visible without going inside the body to see it directly. That can be critical in car accident injuries, which often include significant impact and crushing trauma to the body internals.
Advantages of the MRI
For patient safety, the MRI scan is ideal. It has no added chemicals nor radiation, both of which include risks for the body over time. Unlike x-rays, which are essentially radioactive, MRIs can be applied repeatedly without risk, allowing doctors to see far more, including how the body is responding to healing as well.
MRI scans also provide a big advantage when it comes to imaging the entire organ versus just a small perspective. The tool is also very useful in identifying soft tissue that is problematic versus normal, such as swelling, tearing, and deformities. And it can be applied to all parts of the body without risk or side effects.
The CT scan, alternatively, also examines the inside of the body, producing internal views without damaging the outside of the body to do so. It can be used on soft tissue as well as bone and provides extremely useful detail on circulatory functions as well as large organs. It works well for bone and soft tissue at the same time. And it has the advantage of showing where minute damage occurs to the bone, such as fractures and splinters. In practice, the CT scan has been regularly used in spotting cancer, and it provides an alternative diagnostic for patients with implants who can’t be examined with other options.
A Personal Injury Attorney Houston Perspective from Recovery
The MRI is the gold standard amongst surgeons because, connective tissue injuries and disc injuries are most visible with this method. An injury victim, who has had an X-Ray or MRI, should ask about the diagnostic tool used, was used because it is the best diagnostic tool, or because it is all that was available. MRI scans penetrate and image tissue that has significant water; swelling essentially floods fluid into a damaged body part to stabilize it, but is also obscures views from imaging studies. A Houston personal injury attorney and patient will both find the MRI solves this problem, finding complicated soft-tissue issues obscured otherwise. These can be missed otherwise and not pursued for recovery. Pinched nerves, hidden internal bleeding, misaligned muscles and tendons all show up. And the MRI works effectively for mothers-to-be expecting and who cannot be exposed to radiation in x-rays.
Given how much of the body is soft tissue, there is no question the MRI provides a far better picture. And, for recovery assessment, personal injury lawyer Houston experts often recommend it for car accident recoveries. The McLemore Law Firm regularly works with doctors and surgeons evaluating car accidents and injuries. Among Houston personal injury attorneys, Scott McLemore has a reputation for thorough medical case review, having handled and tried, medical malpractice cases, products liability cases, personal injury cases and 18 wheeler wrecks for 25 years. You deserve an effective personal injury attorney Texas resource to have for personal recovery after an accident.