Radiation exposure among emergency healthcare providers by portable radiograph

Abstract

Purpose: The healthcare providers in emergency department(ED) are vulnerable to radiation exposure by portableradiographs. But there are few studies that showed the difference between professions and the radiologic technicians. Thisstudy was conducted to measure radiation exposure level to portable radiography equipment, for the healthcare providers, inED.Methods: A prospective study was conducted from July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010 at the ED. Each worethermoluminescent personal radiation dosimetry monitors at near the heart while working in the ED. We estimated the radiationexposure dose of these healthcare providers in ED for six months and compared the results with those obtained for theworkers in the radiology department.Results: The radiation exposure of three types of portable radiographs(Chest, C-spine, Pelvis) was rapidly decreased bydiameter from the beam. The total radiation exposure of over 6 months goes as follows; nurse(0.022±0.008 mSv), emergencyphysicians(0.388±0.735 mSv), emergency medical technicians(0.320±0.217 mSv), intern(0.267±0.478 mSv), resident(0.20±0mSv). The average exposure does of the healthcare providers in the ED was lower than that of radiologic technicians(0.122±0.339 vs 0.455±0.654 mSv, p=0.007) but the difference of radiation exposure among interns, emergency physicians,and radiologic technician was not statistically significant(0.267±0.47 vs 0.388±0.735 vs 0.513±0.692 mSv, p=0.101).Conclusion: The average of radiation exposure among emergency healthcare providers by portable radiography equipmentwas 0.1222mSv, and there was no interprofessional difference between the physicians and the other groups. But managementof radiation exposure in healthcare providers is important because total radiation exposure of the emergency physicians and theintern shows exposure to a lot of radiation as observed in the radiologic technologists.