Re: Sr-89 Inpatients

["Kenneth Douglass" <KDOUGLAS@WVUHSC1.HSC.WVU.EDU>]

Sr-89ers:
I apologize if my initial response to the question was a litle too 
flippant. In my defense, that is what our manual states and - to my 
knowledge - all of our Sr-89 administrations have been outpatients. 

What worries me, now that the subject has been raised, is that they 
will not tell me if they do an inpatient Sr-89. I think the 
precautions you have discussed are appropriate, considering the 
potential for contamination and the long half-life. The situarion is 
midway between I-131 and I-125, with little or no external exposure.

I was involved with one patient who had received P-32 and then went 
to surgery a couple of days later. They covered the floor with 
absorbent paper and wore rings. I collected body fluids and 
contaminated waste and held them for decay. There wasn't any 
contamination of hte room or instuments. Universal precautions are a 
blessing since they don't need to do anything different to avoid 
radioactive contamination.

We have also seen the OR procedures involving Tc-99m. The NM people 
had to be convinced that this was different than injecting someone 
for a bone scan and sending them back to their room. We can hold 
waste materials for decay, but surgical specimens are different. I 
found out ina hurry that Pathology guards them as jealously as we 
guard the radioactivity. We agreed to set up a shielded area in 
Pathology to receive these specimens and hold for decay.  

As usual, the discussion on Radsafe is informative. I greatly 
appreciate the interaction and hope to add something useful as well 
as benefiting from it.

Ken

Ken Douglass,
RSO
West Virginia university
Kenneth H. Douglass, Ph.D.
Director, Radiation Safety
West Virginia University
West Virginia University Hospitals
PO Box 9006
Morgantown WV 26506
(304) 293-1549
(304) 293-4529 (fax)
kdouglas@wvu.edu