Radiation doses of patients and urologists during percutaneous nephrolithotomy

Renal stones can be treated either by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) or percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). Increasing use of fluoroscopic exposure for access and to detect stone location during PCNL make the measurement of patient and staff doses important. The main objective of this work was to assess patient and urologist doses for the PCNL examination. We used the tube output technique for determination of patient doses (n = 20) and lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips for urologist dose measurements. The TLD technique was also used for some patient dose measurements (n = 7) for comparison with the tube output technique. Mean entrance skin doses of 191 and 117 mGy were measured by the tube output technique for anterior-posterior (AP) and right anterior oblique (RAO) 30 degrees /left anterior oblique (LAO) 30 degrees projections, respectively. The mean urologist doses for eye, finger and collar were measured as 26, 33.5 and 48 microGy per procedure, respectively. The mean effective dose per procedure for the urologist was 12.7 microSv. None of the individual skin dose results approach deterministic levels.