Observing Best Practice In Accidental Exposures In Radiotherapy: A Review Article

Radiotherapy is the use of ionizing radiation in the treatment of disease of disease, the commonest being cancer. Radiotherapy is concerned primarily with tumour cure or palliation. Modern radiotherapy has three major concerns, efficacy, quality of life and safety. It is always necessary to be aware of the potential for an accident, the relative importance of human factors, and the wider consequences of an accident. A radiation accident is defined as an unintended event (operator error, equipment failure, or other mishaps) that has or may have adverse consequences. Depending on the type of persons exposed, accidents can be divided into three major groups: !Members of the general public, irradiated as a result of failure of implementation of radiation protection and safety rules; !Clinical staff irradiated during preparation of radiation sources or patient treatment and maintenance staff irradiated during installation, repairs, source change or other equipment servicing; !Patients, injured during treatment. The use of the term 'radiation accident' for events involving the public and staff i.e. groups (1) and (2) has a relatively straight forward interpretation as neither workers nor public are intentionally irradiated, this makes it easier to distinguish a normal exposure from an accidental one. For patient undergoing treatment, i.e. group (3) the use of the term 'accident' deserves special consideration. The major focus is in preventing injury to patients. The majority of radiation therapy accidents have occurred in category (3). Accidental exposure to radiation is not uncommon. A lot of accidents have been documented in developed world. It is very pertinent to learn from the causes and implications of the documented accidental exposures in radiotherapy in the developed countries so as to mitigate such happenings in our environment.