Chapters 4–7

✍ Scribed by J. Valentin

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 174 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6453
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icrp.2005.05.003

✦ Synopsis

4. INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMPONENTS OF THE REMOTE AFTERLOADING HDR SUITE

(20) In order to understand the nature of adverse events related to HDR brachytherapy, it is helpful to have a basic knowledge of the infrastructure and components of the remote afterloading HDR suite (Fig. 4.1) because such events (due to equipment-related problems, human error, or a combination of both) can occur at many points in the remote afterloading systems. A synopsis of the types of adverse events is presented in Section 8, and a fuller description of reported events is presented in Section 9. The roles of personnel training and quality assurance (QA) in contributing to the avoidance of such adverse events are noted in Sections 5 and 6, respectively.

(21) A remote afterloading system consists of a motor-driven source transport system for automatically transferring radioactive material between a shielded safe and the treatment applicator (AAPM, 1993). These systems were first designed for use in gynaecological brachytherapy, but microsource models were designed for broader applications.

(22) Overall requirements for an infrastructure can be found in IAEA (1998, 2001). This section will focus on operational and clinical aspects of an infrastructure.