Radiation exposure to operating theatre personnel during fluoroscopic-assisted orthopaedic surgery.

Orthopaedic procedures especially dynamic hip screw (DHS) fixation, interlocking nailing (ILN) of the tibia and femur require fluoroscopic assistance. Frequent exposure to radiation is a major concern to members of the orthopaedic surgical team. This study was undertaken to measure shallow (skin) dose to the operating team personnel and deep (whole body) dose to the surgeon during such procedures in view to provide guidelines to the operating team members regarding the number of procedures allowable for them to perform or assist annually. Skin dose for the operating personnel and whole body dose for the operating surgeon during 25 procedures; ten cases of DHS, seven and six cases of ILN of the tibia and femur respectively, was measured using Thermoluminescent Dosimeter (TLD) chips. The shallow radiation dose for theatre personnel ranged from 0.19 mSy to 0.61 per case while the deep dose for the surgeon was 0.28, 0.55 and 0.81 mSy for seven cases of tibial ILN, ten cases of DHS and six cases of femur ILN respectively. The surgeon has the highest radiation exposure than other theatre personnel and the whole body exposure for DHS was higher than that of for ILN. However, the estimated cumulative dose was still far below the permissible annual dose limit.

Radiation and temperature effects on conductivity properties of PVA-KOH-PC composite.

The aim of this work was to study radiation and the effects of temperature on conductivity properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based potassium hydroxide (KOH) and propylene carbonate (PC), where the ionic conduction preferentially occurs in the amorphous phase by free radicals ions through gamma-irradiation. Alkaline composite polymer electrolyte (ACPE) consisting of PVA, KOH and PC of different concentration ratios were prepared by solvent-casting technique. The ACPE were irradiated with different doses from 5 kGy up to 200 kGy. The conductivity properties of the electrolyte films were measured at different frequencies in the range 20 Hz to 1 MHz using LCR meter. The results showed that the conductivity properties were dependent on the radiation dose, temperature and the concentration of the polymer blends.

Dose response characteristics of polymethacrylic acid gel (PMAAG) for a polymerization-based dosimeter using NMR.

The radiation-response characteristics of polymetharylic acid gel dosimeter prepared with different concentrations of monomer and cross-linker is described in these studies. The dosimeters were prepared under the hypoxic condition in a glove box and were then irradiated with gamma-rays produced by Co-60 radionuclide that was generated at 1.25MeV energy. The irradiation took place at different doses ranged from 0Gy to 19Gy. Due to the radiation activities, chain-reaction polymerisation processes had taken place in the formation of polymethacrylic acid (PMAA) gel, which cause the dose response mechanism increased in the NMR relaxation rates of protons. It has been observed that for higher concentration of monomer and cross-linker, the polymerization rate was increased.