Artigo Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

Excess Radiation to Newborns Hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit

2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 177; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/rpd/ncx051

ISSN

1742-3406

Autores

Cássio Vilela Komatsu, Cristiane Camargo Silva, Luís Ronan Marquez Ferreira de Souza, Luis Fernando Gonçalves,

Tópico(s)

Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry

Resumo

Newborns in intensive care units are generally subjected to a great number of X-rays procedures and to the risk of radiation-induced damage. This study evaluated a possible excess radiation by excess of radiographs, excess of dose per radiograph or under-collimation of the X-ray beam. The mean of X-rays per newborn was 12 (1-65) during a mean hospitalization of 29 d (1-226 d). The mean frequency was 0.8 X-ray exposures per newborn. About 13% of X-rays were performed without a well-defined clinical motivation. The mean entrance surface dose of 72 μGy was higher than in most of comparative studies. Under-collimation caused non-thoracic structures to appear frequently on chest radiographs. This study indicates a possible reduction in X-rays exposures by applying the justification principle for each X-ray procedure, recommends a multiprofessional work in the attempt to dose optimization, and shows need of correctly use of collimation system to avoid irradiation of non-thoracic structures.

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