Real-time dosimetry reduces radiation exposure of orthopaedic surgeons

BackgroundCancer prevalence of orthopaedic surgeons is elevated and chronic exposure to occupational ionizing radiation is seen as one reason.HypothesisUse of a new dosimeter enabling radiation dose monitoring in real-time may reduce radiation exposure of orthopaedic surgeons.Materials and methodsOver a period of four months, the surgeon and the C-arm operator were equipped with a novel dosimeter called DoseAware® (DA) while using the C-arm fluoroscope intraoperatively. Data of 68 patients DA were retrospectively compared using matched-pair analysis with 68 controls without DA. Both groups were assessed regarding fluoroscopic time (FT) and radiation dose (RD). Seven types of operative procedures were performed: internal fixation of subcapital humerus fractures, midshaft clavicular fractures, distal radius fractures, pertrochanteric femoral fractures, ankle fractures, traumatic vertebral fractures and osteoporotic vertebral fractures.ResultsConcerning the FT, use of DoseAware® led to a significant reduction for all evaluated operation types except for internal fixation of distal radius fractures (P = 0.0511). Regarding the RD, use of DoseAware® led to a significant reduction for all evaluated operation types except trochanteric femoral fractures with a PFNA® (P = 0.0841).ConclusionDoseAware® allowing real-time radiation dose monitoring reduces radiation exposure of the orthopaedic surgeon and instantly demonstrates the effects of dose-reduction techniques.Level of evidenceLevel III retrospective case control study.