Reproducibility of field alignment in difficult patient positioning.

PURPOSE

Quantitative assessment of the accuracy of field alignment in a homogeneous group of patients with difficult positioning (postoperative irradiation after total hip replacement).

METHODS AND MATERIALS

In 95 patients linear and rotational discrepancies were measured between the simulation and first check film and between five consecutive verification films.

RESULTS

For the total group of patients, all deviations were normally distributed with mean values of approximately zero and standard deviations of 4.0-8.0 mm (linear discrepancies) and 3.5-5 degrees (rotational discrepancies). Deviations were similar for the transition from simulator to the treatment machine and for subsequent treatment delivery, with 50% and 95% of absolute differences being less than 5 mm and 15 mm, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis indicates that statistical fluctuations are considerably more important than errors introduced at start of treatment. Therefore, a first check film seems to be inadequate to predict the expected inaccuracies for the whole course of treatment. In addition, our results should help to prescribe appropriate safety margins for patients with difficult positioning.