This is why we need RCTs, total-body CT edition

A number of observational studies have shown that total-body CT scans are beneficial when working up a trauma victim. So we do them. We know observational studies aren’t what we need, but we do them.

Enter this RCT from four hospitals in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Adults who had undergone trauma were randomized on a 1:1 basis to get either immediate total-body CT scans or a standard workup with conventional imagine and CT scanning when individually needed. Clearly doctors weren’t blinded, and neither were patients. The outcome of interest were in-hospital mortality.