A new study published in Spine examines the radiation associated with C-arm use during minimally invasive spine surgery.
The study authors gathered data from an institutional review board-approved database, which included more than 1,100 minimally invasive spine surgery procedures. The study authors calculated the set-up and total radiation, set-up radiation and procedure type. The set-up and total procedure data was collected for 270 spine surgeries including 30 thoracic and 240 thoracolumbar/lumbar cases; another 78 were anterior and 192 were posterior.
The researchers found:
1. Average radiation including set-up and intraoperative radiation was 8.04 rad.
2. Set-up radiation was 1.9 rad on average for all cases. The set up for thoracolumbar/lumbar cases accounted for around 25 percent of the total radiation, contributing 1.76 rad out of 8.16 total rad.
3. Cases that were thoracic only often needed more images for localization; as a result, the average set-up was 52 percent of total radiation.
4. The set-up radiation significantly increased total radiation across all cases, accounting for more than 25 percent of the radiation for the total procedure.
5. The study authors concluded, "Operating room personnel should recognize the high percentage of radiation that occurs during set-up, and merit should be given to techniques and technologies that can limit unnecessary radiation exposure during this portion of the procedure."