Assessment of effective dose in paediatric radiology:: A survey at 14 Dutch hospitals

Radiation protection in paediatric radiology deserves special attention since it is assumed that children are more sensitive to radiation than are adults. This study aimed at establishing the dose for three frequently applied projections in paediatric radiology at 14 Dutch hospitals. Measured entrance doses are a factor 2.5 to 4.5 lower in comparison with the criteria of the European Commission for radiation dose to the patient An evaluation of techniques applied at the different hospitals shows that there is no consensus on the optimal radiographic technique. In consequence, variations in entrance dose with a factor 3 to 10 were observed. The highest effective doses were found for pelvis radiographs and radiographs of the abdomen of 5-year-old children, i.e. 26 mu Sv and 43 mu Sv respectively. For the other investigations average effective doses vary from 5 to 10 mu Sv.