gms | German Medical Science

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May, Essen

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Surgeon's radiation exposure during percutaneous vertebroplasty

Strahlenbelastung des Operatuers unter perkutaner Vertebroplastie

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  • corresponding author M. Synowitz - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Helios Klinikum Berlin
  • J. Kiwit - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Helios Klinikum Berlin

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 57. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Essen, 11.-14.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocP 11.174

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2006/06dgnc391.shtml

Published: May 8, 2006

© 2006 Synowitz et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: We evaluated radiation exposure levels to protected and unprotected hands during fluoroscopically assisted vertebroplasty.

Methods: Doses were assessed in 30 patients and 41 procedures in a controlled prospective trial over six months, comparing radiation exposure of right and left hands in two neurosurgeons. Effective skin doses were evaluated with thermoluminescent finger dosimeters (ring dosimeters). The ratios of finger dosimeter exposure were compared between glove protected and unprotected left hands and both unprotected right hands. In addition, DAP (dose-area product) and fluoroscopy times were recorded in all patients.

Results: The mean effective hand dose was 0.49±0.4mSv with glove protected left hand and 1.94±1.12mSv with unprotected left one (p<0.05). Mean effective hand doses were 0.59±0,55mSv with unprotected right hand of the glove protected surgeon and 0.62±0.55mSv with unprotected right hand of the control surgeon. Corresponding fluoroscopy time was 38.55 minutes for the protected surgeon and 41.23 minutes for the unprotected one (p>0.05). Lead glove shielding resulted in radiation dose reduction of 75%. The total DAP for all procedures was 256496 mGy/cm2 and 221408 mGy/cm2 (p>0.05).

Conclusions: This study emphasizes the importance of lead glove protection of surgeon’s leading hands in percutaneous Vertebroplasty reducing radiation exposure by 75%.