Background/introduction
In cardiovascular pediatric intensive care unit, the x-ray of the chest is an essential tool,both in pre-surgeryandafter-surgery evaluation.
However pediatric patients have a higher risk of radiological damages compared to adults, becouse of their longer life expectancy and the greater radiosensitivity of organs and tissues.
Moreover these patients undergo, during hospitalization, further radiological investigations like hemodynamic studies and sometime CT exams.
This is the reasone why is necessary, for a good quality and safe clinical pratice in pediatric intensive care unit,to periodically review radiological protocols...
Description of activity and work performed
From January 2014 to December 2018, we retrospectively review the radiographic reports of all pediatric patients, made during the hospital stay, to calculate the total number of x-ray, taken each year, and to estimate the average value per child. We also analyzed the standard practice in our pediatric intensive unit care, counting how many chest and abdominalx-rays have been done per child and the reason why they were made.
We also counted how many unnecessary x-rays have been taken for year, searching for radiologicalreports “Unchanged...
Conclusion and recommendations
To optimize the radiological work flow in pediatric unit care and to reduce the radiological exposure, is necessary to define and to share radiological protocols with colleaguesof pediatric intensive care unit. It is also important to practice other imaging diagnostic methods, like ultrasound of the chest, to integrate information.
Limitations:
We defined as "unnecessary x-rays" only x-ray whose reports include “Unchanged findings”, so probably we may have lost some cases.
Personal/organisational information
D. della Latta; Massa/IT - nothing to disclose V. Piagneri; Carrara (MS)/IT - nothing to disclose D. Chiappino; Massa/IT - nothing to disclose P. Del Sarto; Massa/IT - nothing to disclose T. Trapuzzano; Marina Di Carrara/IT - nothing to disclose C. L. Susini; Massa/IT - nothing to disclose
References
Italian guidelines for diagnostic exposure in neonatal intensive care units
A. del Vecchio1, S. Salerno1, M. Barbagallo2, M. Campoleoni1, V. Cannatà3, G. Chirico1, C. Granata1, A. Loria1, A. Magistrelli1; 1Milan/IT 2Catania/IT 3Rome/IT (6/2018)
Image gently: image quality and dose adìssessment in portable CXR in the NICU and PICU before and after implementation of a high-KVp tecnique
A. Elbakri PHD et all, Dept. Of Radiology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Istrael