how should the healthcare professional reply when parents question why a computed tomographic (ct) scan of the head was not ordered for their 5-year-old child after a minor fall?

Answer it as their child doesn't meet the indication for CT-scan and the risks outweigh the benefits if a child is going to CT-scan but does not meet the indications.

Traumatic Brain Injury Imaging

For head injuries, the best imaging is a CT scan. Besides being able to visualize bones well, CT scans can also show edema, bleeding, contusions, ventricular shifts. Besides that, in emergency cases such as head injuries that require a diagnosis in a short time, CT scanning is also superior to MRI which requires a long time.

However, not all patients after head injuries have to undergo a CT scan. For children 2-18 years old, there are indications for a CT scan using the PECARN Pediatric Head Trauma CT Decision Guide approach.

High risk (immediate CT scan)

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) <15
Sign of basilar skull fracture (raccoon eyes, battle sign, rhinorrhea, otorrhea)
Altered mental status (agitation, somnolence, slow response, repetitive question)

Intermediate risk (consider to CT-scan)

Vomiting Loss of consciousness
Severe headache
Severe mechanism of injury (fall > 5 ft, bike/pedestrian vs vehicle, struck by high impact object)

If you are at intermediate risk, you may consider having a CT scan with the following factors:

Worsening condition at time of evaluation
Experience of physician
Preference of parent

When a child with a head injury does not meet the indication criteria for a CT scan, tell the parents:

There is no indication for doing a CT-scan
CT-scan has a fairly high level of radiation, many times higher than regular X-rays because it takes image per layer of the body.
The child will be placed in a narrow tunnel. If the child is less cooperative and moves around in the CT-scan device, the result will not be good.

Learn more about CT-Scan here: https://brainly.com/question/21049445

#SPJ4