The use of radioactive seed localization (RSL) as an alternative to wire localizations (WL) for nonpalpable breast lesions is rapidly gaining acceptance because of its advantages for both the patient and the surgical staff. This paper examines the initial experience with over 1,200 patients seen at a comprehensive cancer center. Radiation safety procedures for radiology, surgery, and pathology were implemented, and radioactive material inventory control was maintained using an intranet-based program. Surgical probes allowed for discrimination between 125I seed photon energies from 99mTc administered for sentinel node testing. A total of 1,127 patients (median age of 57.2 y) underwent RSL procedures with 1,223 seeds implanted. Implanted seed depth ranged from 10.3-107.8 mm. The median length of time from RSL implant to surgical excision was 2 d. The median 125I activity at time of implant was 3.1 MBq (1.9 to 4.6). The median dose rate from patients with a single seed was 9.5 µSv h-1 and 0.5 µSv h-1 at contact and 1 m, respectively. The maximum contact dose rate was 187 µSv h-1 from a superficially placed seed. RSL performed greater than 1 d before surgery is a viable alternative to WL, allowing flexibility in scheduling, minimizing day of surgery procedures, and improving workflow in breast imaging and surgery. RSL has been shown to be a safe and effective procedure for preoperative localization under mammographic and ultrasound guidance, which can be managed with the use of customized radiation protection controls.
Leaded glasses are a powerful tool for reducing the orthopaedic surgeon's lens exposure to radiation during acquisition of common intraoperative fluoroscopic views.
External dose rates were measured 1 m away from 230 Lu-177 patients to characterise the variability in normalised dose rates as a function of administered activity, body mass index (BMI) and sex. The largest dose rate observed was 0.07 mSv/h associated with an administered activity of 7.2 GBq. Substantial variability was found in the distribution of the normalised dose rate associated that had an average of 0.0037 mSv/h per GBq and a 95% confidence interval of 0.0024–0.0058 mSv/h per GBq. Based on this study, estimating the patient dose rate based on the Lu-177 gamma exposure factor overestimates the dose rate by a factor of 2. A statistically significant inverse relationship was found between the patient dose rate and patient BMI and an empirically derived equation relating these two quantities was reported. On average, male patient dose rates were 3.5% lower than female dose rates, which may be attributed to the larger average BMI of the male patient group.
This paper summarizes the dose to the eye lens of workers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a high-volume US oncologic and associated diseases facility. The doses presented in this report were collected from personal dosemeter readings using optically stimulated luminescence badges to estimate Hp(3). Doses were collected for 5950 clinical and research workers between January 2012 and December 2017. The median eye lens dose for all monitored workers was 0.23 mSv y−1. Workers performing, or supporting, fluoroscopy procedures received the highest unprotected eye lens dose of all workers with a median eye dose of 10 mSv. The use of leaded glasses by this group reduced the actual doses to the lens. Nurses and technicians involved in positron emission tomography injections received median eye lens dose of 1.2 mSv.
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