For CT, X-rays (what CT scanners use) won’t penetrate through the grommet, so it may leave an area with less resolution in the ‘shadow’ of the grommet. CT scanners imaging works rotate around the patient, so hopefully this effect will be minimized by the act of ‘taking the pictures’ from a multitude of angles.

For MRI, any metal will distort the anatomy immediately around it. The good news is that titanium is one of the least-distorting metals, so the disruptive effects may be negligible for your daughter.

In either case, I would recommend sitting down with your radiologist and discussing the pro’s and con’s of each imaging option. Bring whatever information you have about the grommets for the radiologist to help you to make an informed decision about what imaging options would be best.

I hope that this helps.

There are two issues in play with respect to your spinal prosthesis… one is ‘would MRI imaging endanger you because of the implant’, and the other is ‘would MRI images show anything useful near the implant’?

The relative newness of your implant would have me hopeful that it would be ‘MRI-friendly’ and not put you at any risk if you had an MRI, but you should have an implant card (or this information should be in your medical record) that identifies the manufacturer, make, model and serial number of the implant (actually, it’s probably implantS, what with the anchors or screws that were used to affix the plate to your vertebrae). This information will help an MRI provider determine if imaging you would present specific risks.

Best to you!

Anytime you have had metal inside your body (even if it was removed), it is necessary to have a detailed conversation with the MRI provider’s staff to let them know all of the details about it so that they can work with you to determine whether or not there’s a risk to your health, going forward.

Many times, patients with retained bullets can get MRI scans without undue risk, and I would think that this would be the like case with your scenario… but do talk with the MRI provider to make sure!

All metal creates some ‘artifact’ in MRI imaging. The more magnetic the metal, the more distortion it causes around the area where it’s located. For MRI imaging this can mean that — even though it’s not a safety risk for you — the metal in the implant makes it difficult / impossible to view the anatomy nearby on an MRI scan.

It is also not uncommon for some implants to be subjected to slight magnetic pull during MRI imaging. This can also be experienced as ‘vibration’ which can sometimes feel like either a burn or electric shock, because the sensation is (sometimes) being created in an area that doesn’t have the nerve receptors to correctly characterize the sensation.

Particularly given what you said about the MRI image being useless, this suggests that your implants have a fair amount of magnetic material, so, if that’s the case, it wouldn’t surprise me at all that you felt motion.

I hope this helps.

If the needles are only 1 to 2 mm long, that’s pretty tiny. Even if they were raw iron, the most magnetic metal, at such a small size I don’t think that they would experience much attractive force. They might vibrate during an MRI exam, and feel odd (even uncomfortable), but I think that it’s definitely within the realm that a radiologist with the MRI center should (perhaps with the benefit of an X-ray) work with you to make an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with the MRI scan.

I hope this helps.