Do carers and comforters require lead aprons during general radiographic examinations?

Carers and comforters frequently remain with children during paediatric general radiographic examinations. As well as improving the likelihood of overall success of the procedure, this can be important for minimising stress and anxiety of the child. Wearing lead aprons can contribute to additional stress and anxiety about the procedure for both carer and child, specifically due to radiation risk. It also introduces some practical challenges for radiographers. This study quantified a carers exposure to scattered radiation for general radiographic examinations when remaining with a child to assist in positioning or to comfort them.

Scattered radiation was measured at four common locations where a carer may stand, with a range of tube potentials (40 kV_p to 100 kV_p ) and PMMA thicknesses of 2.5-22.5 cm. This was then matched to our clinical protocols to estimate the radiation dose a carer could be exposed to while assisting a patient during general radiographic examinations.

The effective dose received by a carer standing 20 cm from the centre of the patient varies from 11 min of Australian natural BERT for a finger radiograph on a patient <3 kg and up to 62 h for a swimmers view radiograph performed on a patient >70 kg.

This dosimetric data allowed an evidence-based assessment of radiation protection requirements for the carer using the ALARA principle. At our institution, it was decided that a lead apron is not required if the carer is unlikely to receive more than 2 µSv. A new policy, presented here, was developed to implement this decision.