Skin injuries from fluoroscopically guided cardiac interventional procedures.

Abstract

Fluoroscopically guided cardiac interventional procedures have become common in medical practice. Although such procedures are valuable therapeutically, they have the potential to expose patients to high radiation doses. It has been noticed that doses in such procedures have reached thresholds for various types of radiation induced skin injuries. Moreover, most of the health careers involved in interventional cardiology, are not aware of this potential risk. This research study was designed to determine whether patients undergoing cardiac interventional procedures at the Cath Laboratory in St.Luke's Hospital are developing radiation induced skin injuries and to compare the dose area product readings measured locally with those in the literature. The study also tried to determine whether patients suffering from certain medical conditions are at greater risk of developing such injuries. The results of the study demonstrate that the dose area product readings locally are quite low when compared to other studies. The study also demonstrates that skin injuries are occurring amongst patients at St. Luke's Hospital. On the basis of these findings and the literature reviewed, recommendations are proposed for patient follow up examinations, dose reference levels and constant training of members of staff in radiation protection.