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What's new in understanding radiation risks for patients in interventional procedures
Moderator: Jenia Vassileva (IAEA)
Presenters: Madan Rehani (IOMP), Werner Jaschke (CIRSE)
Date of broadcast: 23 February 2021, 2 pm CET
Organized jointly with the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE)
About the webinar
Fluoroscopically guided interventional (FGI) procedures provide an excellent alternative to many surgical interventions. However, since the early 1990s, the risk of tissue injuries like skin burn has garnered attention as such injuries continue to be reported. As a result, following the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and the IAEA, some countries have introduced requirements for the follow up of patients who cross a defined threshold of dose at the patient entrance reference point. This has not only raised awareness but reduced the percentage of patients at risk of tissue reaction owing to higher skin doses. Recent literature has highlighted the risk of stochastic effects as estimated effective doses portray a sizable number of patients with a relatively high dose of 100 mSv or more from a single FGI procedure. The number of FGI procedures for an individual patient during a short period of 1 to 3 years has also been assessed.
The IAEA along with International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiologic Society of Europe (CIRSE) will present current knowledge of the subject and actions that can help improve patient radiation protection.
Learning objectives
- Learn about the results achieved in reducing the number of patients crossing the trigger level for tissue reactions;
- Understand the newly available results on patients who receive relatively high effective doses (>100 mSv) either through a single or multiple interventional procedures in a period of 1 to 3 years;
- Address the need to develop strategies and actions to improve radiation protection of patients undergoing FGI.
About the presenters
Dr Madan M. Rehani is the Director of Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA. He is also the President of the International Organization for Medical Physics (2018–2021). He worked previously as a Radiation Safety Specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 11 years and as a Professor and the Head of Medical Physics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. Dr Rehani is a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He is a co-author of eight Annals of the ICRP, four of which he served as Chair of the Task Group. He is a senior editor at the British Journal of Radiology and an associate editor of Medical Physics. He has published more than 155 papers and 39 book chapters and has edited five books.
Dr Werner Jaschke was Director and Chair of the Department of Radiology at Medical University Innsbruck, Austria (1993–2020). He has extensive experience in interventional radiology, especially in endovascular procedures of the body. He is the Chair of the Radiation Protection Subcommittee of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiologic Society of Europe (CIRSE), representing CIRSE in the EuroSafe Imaging campaign and in relevant European Commission tenders. Since 2014 he has been involved in organizing the CIRSE’s Radiation Protection Pavilion, an annual awareness campaign for radiation safety. Dr Jaschke has authored/co-authored more than 300 papers in scientific journals. In 2019 he was invited to present the Andreas Grüntzig Lecture at the CIRSE Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain in acknowledgement of his outstanding contribution to interventional radiology.