Radiation Exposure of Patients in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The chest radiography is the most valuable imaging modality in the assessment of respiratory problems in neonates. However, use of X-rays is associated with exposure to ionising radiation. Scattered and leakage radiation increases over-all dose received by each patient in the ward. In this study we explore medical and public exposure of patients in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the Clinical Centre of Sarajevo University (CCSU). Study included 120 randomly selected patients. The effective dose arising from medical and public exposure was estimated using direct measurements and appropriate software tools. The entrance surface air kerma for a single chest radiography exposure is 86 mu Gy, which corresponds to 0.60 mSv effective dose. On average, patients are exposed 2.1 times, so the average cumulative effective dose is 0.13 mSv. The estimated effective dose from public exposure was 1:25 x 10(-4) mSv, which could be considered negligible. For patients undergoing more examinations, one could consider introducing ultrasound (LUS) as a method of choice.