Intraoperative radiation exposure in a level 1 trauma centre orthopedic operating room

Abstract

Background: Although fluoroscopy is used routinely, surgeons and orthopedic residents are inadequately educated about the dangers associated with radiation exposure and protective measures in the operating room. We sought to report the average radiation exposure during common orthopedic trauma procedures for different team members and to determine if the fluoroscopy emitting report is correlated with the radiation measured in the room. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study over 3 months in a level 1 trauma centre. We collected radiation levels from dosimeters in different standardized locations at 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m from the C-arm machine, labelled as dosimeters A, B, and C, corresponding to the locations of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse, respectively). We classified mean exposure (and standard deviations [SDs] according to the body part exposed and the dose delivered. Results: We included recordings from 100 patients who underwent surgery for fractures, of which 50 involved a distal extremity, 31 involved a proximal extremity and 19 involved the pelvic area. Dosimeter A (surgeon) recorded a significantly higher amount of radiation at a mean of 20.35 (SD 54.25) μSv than the other 2 dosimeters (B [anesthesiologist]: 0.87 [SD 1.55] μSv; C [nurse]: 0.49 [SD 0.92] μSv), regardless of the fracture location. Higher radiation levels were recorded for fixation of centrally located fractures, followed by lower-extremity fractures and upper-extremity fractures. Half-dose and quarter-dose fluoroscopy emitted statistically lower radiation than standard-dose fluoroscopy. The radiation report from the fluoroscopy machine was highly correlated with the measured radiation (ρ = 0.93; r2 = 0.909, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Radiation exposure is much higher closer to the fluoroscopy machine and decreases following an inverse-square law from the radiation source, becoming negligible at 2 m from the source. Using the low-dose radiation mode can significantly decrease radiation exposure.