3:54 PM Abstract No. 127 Preliminary assessment of hospital staff body and hand radiation exposure during Y90 radioembiolization dose preparation and administration

Abstract

The safe use of ytrrium-90 (Y90) for radioembolization requires that all staff involved have a firm understanding of the radiation safety aspects of the devices. Two types of Y90 liver therapies are currently available, each with different method of preparation and administration. Although widely used, there is minimal data on the radiation exposure to staff performing these procedures. We present preliminary data on radiation exposure to staff involved with Y90 radioembolization therapies. Measurements of body (5 SIR, 5 Thera) and hand doses (6 SIR, 13 Thera) for interventional radiology physicians and nuclear medicine technologists were recorded during TheraSphere (Biocompatibles, Farnham, UK) and SIR-Spheres (Sirtex, North Sydney, AU) patient treatments. Evaluation of hand exposure used Saturn TLD rings (Landauer, Glenwood, IL) worn on both hands during Y90 preparation and administration. Multiple treatments were recorded on a single ring and the average taken over the number of treatments for each therapy. Body exposure was measured using a Rados Rad60 electronic radiation dosimeter (Mirion, Smyrna, GA) with the meter located underneath lead aprons for physicians, and on the abdomen of nuclear medicine technologists. Total hand doses for all TheraSphere procedures remained below 10 mrem, the lowest measurable dose for the TLDs used in this study. SIR-spheres hand doses averaged 12 mrem and 124 mrem per procedure for physician administration and technologist preparation, respectively. Body doses for technologists handling SIR-Spheres averaged 0.16 mrem ± 0.05 and 0.02 ± 0.04 mrem for TheraSpheres. Body doses for physicians measured 0.1 mrem ± 0.1 mrem for SIR-spheres and were too low to measure for TheraSphere. TheraSphere and SIR-Spheres therapies have generally low radiation exposure to hospital personnel when used in routine clinical cases. More data is needed to provide greater statistical significance of these preliminary results.