The Advantages of Volumetric Cone Beam Imaging for Orthopaedic Extremity Exams

Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a variant of traditional computed tomography (CT) and was first described in the late 1970s. The main difference between the two approaches is the volume of the object that is imaged at one time. In traditional CT, a narrow slice of the patient is imaged with a “fan beam” of X-rays. For an extended volume of the anatomy via CT, the patient must be imaged multiple times through the fan of X-rays as it rotates. In contrast, in CBCT, a large-area detector images an extended volume of the patient in a single rotation. (See Figure 1.)