FW: Procedure for gonadal shielding

[Chris Alston <alstonc@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu>]

>There is a way to shield the gonads from radiation scattered inside the
>patient without cutting the patient open! We did some measurements with a
>purse-shaped lead shield which is put around the gonads. This is somewhat
>awkward for the technicians but very effective. This purse can be
>positioned in a vertical position with the opening pointing downward (for
>an AP beam pointing away from the X-ray tube) thus shielding scattered
>radiation. We measured doses with TLD on a Rando phantom with some
>realistic gonads made of wax. For a large abdominal field not including the
>gonads we measured a dose of 0.4 mGy when no shielding was applied, with
>the purse in horizontal position a dose of 0.16 mGy and with the purse in
>vertical position 0.04 mGy. Clearly much of the radiation scattered inside
>the patient is shielded in this way.
>P.H.v.d.Giessen, Ph.D.
>
>
>At 03:41 PM 12/9/99 -0500, Bob Pizzutiello wrote:
>>At an OR inservice this morning, a nurse asked if they should be doing
>>gonadal shielding patients ... I responded that it was
>>neither necessary nor practical to shield the gonads...
>
>AMEN to your response, Bob.
>
>In fact, circumstances where gonadal shielding in diagnostic x-ray imaging
>is effective are few and far between. The shield may "look good" and make
>the patient feel that the institution is maximizing his/her radiation
>protection (and maybe thereby minimize the chance of law suits). But from a
>physics standpoint, for a properly collimated beam (with the 'nads outside
>the primary beam): any dose scattered to the gonads is generated inside the
>patient. You'd have to cut the patient open and insert a shield
>transversely to effectively shield the gonads!
>
>We have not yet incorporated the latter procedure.
>
>Doug
>
>Douglas J. Simpkin, Ph.D., DABR
>St. Luke's Medical Center
>2900 West Oklahoma Avenue
>Milwaukee, WI 53215
>phone: (414)649-6457
>fax: (414)649-5118
>email: dsimpkin@execpc.com
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