Real-time dosimetry reduces radiation exposure of orthopaedic surgeons.

BACKGROUND

Cancer prevalence of orthopaedic surgeons is elevated and chronic exposure to occupational ionizing radiation is seen as one reason.

HYPOTHESIS

Use of a new dosimeter enabling radiation dose monitoring in real-time may reduce radiation exposure of orthopaedic surgeons.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Over a period of four months, the surgeon and the C-arm operator were equipped with a novel dosimeter called DoseAware(®) (DA) while using the C-arm fluoroscope intraoperatively. Data of 68 patients DA were retrospectively compared using matched-pair analysis with 68 controls without DA. Both groups were assessed regarding fluoroscopic time (FT) and radiation dose (RD). Seven types of operative procedures were performed: internal fixation of subcapital humerus fractures, midshaft clavicular fractures, distal radius fractures, pertrochanteric femoral fractures, ankle fractures, traumatic vertebral fractures and osteoporotic vertebral fractures.

RESULTS

Concerning the FT, use of DoseAware(®) led to a significant reduction for all evaluated operation types except for internal fixation of distal radius fractures (P=0.0511). Regarding the RD, use of DoseAware(®) led to a significant reduction for all evaluated operation types except trochanteric femoral fractures with a PFNA(®) (P=0.0841).

CONCLUSION

DoseAware(®) allowing real-time radiation dose monitoring reduces radiation exposure of the orthopaedic surgeon and instantly demonstrates the effects of dose-reduction techniques.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III retrospective case control study.