Re: Radiation Protection in Interventional Radiology

[tdc@ehssun.lbl.gov (Ted M. de Castro)]

>>Does anyone know of any protective measures or engineering safeguards
>>one can come up with to reduce exposures to physicians involved in
>>interventional radiology?

>>Besides wearing a lead apron, eye goggles, and a thyroid bib, how
>>can they reduce exposure to their face and hands?  Some machines
>>have a pull-down face shield but sometimes they are too cumbersome
>>to use for certain procedures.

This may not be what you are looking for but still may be of some use and 
interest.

For a Cath Lab facility I consult for - they were having exposure problems 
and I was invited to do surveys DURING a real procedure.

The result was indentifying the hot spots in a very meaningful way and we 
were able to try some corrective measures - on the spot!

One thing we found was that the pull down face shield was NOT optimally 
positioned when in line of sight - but was more effective off to one side - 
AND less cumbersome too - a win win discovery.

But I think what helped most was the staff actually seeing where the higher 
levels were and how if they changed their position even a few inches one way 
or the other - it made a BIG difference.

I think now they are aware of high areas on a subconsious level and avoid 
those areas.

In any event - exposures went way down.

FYI