The use of fluoroscopy has widespread in operating theatres, becoming essential in the daily practice of different surgical departments (1). C-arm units are portable and allow to perform multiple different fluoroscopic examinations outside the radiology department. Its use is increasing rapidly as surgery changes to minimal-access surgery. With less direct visualization, surgery is being conducted with fluoroscopic guidance (2). Medical specialties that benefit from the use of fluoroscopy include orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, pain units, urology, endoscopy, cardiology… Being outside radiology departments and not connected to...

The study has been performed at the operating theatre of University Hospital la Princesa (Madrid, Spain). 7 C-arm devices are available to perform different surgical fluoroscopically guided procedures by different medical departments, such as Urology, Digestive Endoscopy, Orthopaedia, Neurosurgery or Pain units. Only 6 have been included in the study, installed between 2005 and 2013, as one of them does not provide any dosimetric information. All C-arm devices (2 Philips, 3 General Electric, 1 Siemens) are subjected to a periodic quality assurance programme. Dosimetric Quantities...

For orthopaedic surgery, hip procedures have appeared to be by far the most usual surgery, and also those which imply higher doses to patients. Limbs attends for ankles, wrists, elbows, knees, femur, since in terms of radiation dose these procedures are much alike, so they have been gathered together to obtain a larger sample. For Neurosurgery, spine procedures have been considered. Pain Unit procedures have been gathered together (mainly radiofrequency device placement) and also Urology, which attends mainly for Double J procedures but also some...

Local DRLs have been established for surgical procedures using portable C-arm units, in order to initiate optimization of patient doses. Doses are definitely not negligible and this study constitutes a starting point in the assessment. Automatic extraction of data with dose management systems would facilitate larger statistic samples and reduce errors, thus fine tuning the obtained DRLs.

Wambani JS, Korir GK, Tries MA, Korir IK, Sakwa JM. Patient radiation exposure during general fluoroscopy examinations. J Appl Clin Med Phys. marzo de 2014;15(2):262-70. Giordano BD, Grauer JN, Miller CP, Morgan TL, Rechtine GR. Radiation Exposure Issues in Orthopaedics*: J Bone Jt Surg. junio de 2011;93(12):e69. Tsapaki V, Tsalafoutas I, Fagkrezos D, Lazaretos I, Nikolaou V, Efstathopoulos N. Patient radiation doses in various fluoroscopically guided orthopaedic procedures. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2015;168. Tsalafoutas IA, Tsapaki V, Kaliakmanis A, Pneumaticos S, Tsoronis F, Koulentianos ED, etal....

P. GARCIA CASTAÑON: Nothing to disclose P. Botella Faus: Nothing to disclose S. HONORATO HERNANDEZ: Nothing to disclose R. FAYOS-SOLA CAPILLA: Nothing to disclose P. Rodríguez Carnero: Nothing to disclose C. PRIETO MARTIN: Nothing to disclose