By Dr. Kyle Kinmon
Certified Foot & Ankle Specialists is the first and only podiatrist office in South Florida to offer patients the state-of-the-art pedCAT machine. This machine is a weight-bearing computerized tomography (CT) imaging machine that offer cutting-edge imaging for foot and ankle patients.
Standing CT scans provide greater insight on what may be actually causing foot pain because bone and joint alignment in the feet change when a person stands upright versus when they lie down. Certified Foot added this technology to aid its eight podiatric surgeons in providing state-of-the-art care to their patients so they can properly diagnose foot and ankle conditions.
“With the advent of weight-bearing CT scans, the surgeon will now be able to more fully evaluate bone structure and joint integrity under the patient’s weight-bearing conditions,” said Dr. Kyle Kinmon, a podiatric surgeon at Certified Foot. “This will greatly enhance the understanding and planned treatment for complex disorders of the foot and ankle, increasing our success rate and the overall experience for our patients.”
Foot and ankle specialists rely on “weight-bearing” X-Rays to treat their patients, and will often redo the X-Ray study if a patient comes in with a non-weight bearing study from an emergency department visit. If the standing X-Ray is inconclusive, physicians will often order a CT scan.
Regular CT scans combine a series of X-Rays taken from multiple angles to reconstruct a three-dimensional look at the patient’s bones and joints. However, the patient must be lying down for a regular CT study, and this does assist with assessing bone and joint alignment. The pedCAT machine takes a scan in less than 60 seconds and does this with significantly lower radiation doses than seen with traditional CT units.
Standing CT imaging has the potential to change foot and ankle specialists’ understanding of fractures, midfoot complications and other subtle injuries, bunions, flat feet, sprains, arthritis, and diabetes related complications. There are only about 50 standing CT systems in the United States, and the closest one for patients is now in South Florida!
Certified Foot & Ankle Specialists, is a comprehensive podiatric team providing all general and specialty food and ankle services in seven convenient locations in Martin, Palm Beach and Broward Counties. The team of eight highly trained, board certified doctors deliver superior foot and ankle treatment in a caring and responsive environment with an emphasis on patient education and specialized attention. With the addition of this weight-bearing CT scan, the doctors can now see deep into the foot, where they could not before, which allows them to provide patients with the best solutions possible for their foot and ankle ailments.
