Computed tomography of the spine in older children and teenagers.

In this short discussion, I have attempted to demonstrate the usefulness of reformatted thin-section spine CT in the evaluation of back syndromes in older children. It is most important to realize that subtle diagnosis requires strict attention to technical detail in performing CT scans, as well as sophistication in computer software to make easily understandable pictures. Axial images alone are totally inadequate for diagnosing some of the abnormalities presented herein. Several of the entities included in this article have never been described by any other radiographic examination, to my knowledge. I believe that reformatted thin-section CT is the single most important radiographic examination of the spine.