Kasr El-Aini Experience in Radiation Safety and Quality Management Program in Intravascular Brachytherapy

摘要

While simple, intravascular brachytherapy (IVB) presents a considerable potential forharm to the patient. The medical physicist maintains the responsibility to minimize thelikelihood of operational problems or dosimetric errors. The principals for safe operationremain the same as with any radiotherapy treatment: to deliver the correct dose, to thecorrect location, safety. To develop an effective and comprehensive quality managementQM program for IVB, a physicist should utilize proven risk assessment techniques ratherthan simply thinking of things to check, and follow guidances such as ISO9001:2000.Kasr El-Aini Hospital –Medical collage-Cairo University installed intravascularBrach therapy treatment modality in 1999 so it was a must to proposed QM programincludes the following: Procedures designed to assure the safety of the patient:Identification of the patient; tests of the integrity and patency for the delivery catheter,operation of the source train, and patency of the catheter in the treatment position; acheck for recovery preparations; and verification of source recovery. Procedures toassure positional accuracy of the treatment: Verification of the positioning the catheter inthe artery and of the sources in the catheter. Procedures to assure dosimetry accuracy:Acceptance testing of the device, including verification of the source strength anduniformity, and of the treatment duration tables; verification of the treatment prescriptionand duration for each patient; and control measures that minimize the likelihood of errorsremoving the source at the correct time.