The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 65, Issue 1 5-12, Copyright © 1983 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Reduction of radiation exposure during radiography for scoliosis
JE Gray, AD Hoffman and HA Peterson
To reduce the radiation exposure received by young scoliosis patients
during treatment, six changes in technique were instituted: (1) a
posteroanterior projection, (2) specially designed leaded acrylic filters,
(3) a high-speed screen-film system, (4) a specially designed
cassette-holder and grid, (5) a breast-shield, and (6) additional
filtration in the x-ray tube the thyroid, breast, and abdominal areas were
made on an Alderson phantom. They revealed an eightfold reduction in
abdominal exposure for both the posteroanterior and the lateral
radiographys. There was a twentyfold reduction in exposure to the thyroid
for the posteroanterior radiography from 100 to less than five
milliroentgens and for the lateral radiograph there was a 100-fold
reduction from 618 to six milliroentgens. For the breasts there was a
sixty-ninefold reduction from 344 to less than five milliroentgens for the
posteroanterior radiography and a fifty-fivefold reduction from 277 to less
than five milliroentgens for the lateral radiograph. These reductions in
exposure were obtained without significant loss in the quality of the
radiographs and in most instances with an improvement in the over-all
quality of the radiograph due to the more uniform exposure.