Enhancing Patient Care: The Benefits of In Office Weight-Bearing CT

Weight bearing CT (WBCT) is a game changer in foot and ankle care. In-office access to CT imaging has reshaped many doctors’ approaches to patient care, including Dr Hodges Davis, MD orthopedic surgeon at OrthoCarolina.

WBCT has been a routine part of his practice for fracture assessment and fusion evaluation. “In-office WBCT changed my life as the practitioner and the lives of my patients,” he said. Here’s how:

1. “I don’t make mistakes,” Dr. Davis said. If a fracture looks questionable on X-Ray, he will order a WBCT in-office to get a definitive answer right away.
2. For routine hindfoot and midfoot fusions, Dr. Davis gets a WBCT scan 3 to 4 months post-operatively to confirm that the ankle is fused so he can catch issues early in the healing process or allow the patient can move forward with the rehabilitation process.

“The research from the last 10 years is so clear,” Dr. Davis said. “Plain films will never give you the same information and the research time and time again shows there is no better way [than WBCT] to determine the deformity in patients and why they are hurting.”