Musculoskeletal Ionizing Radiation Exposure Related Health Results in Nurses: Four Case Reports

Year 2017, Volume 2, Issue 1(4), 54 - 54, 01.11.2017

Meşide Gündüzöz Canan Demir Nejdiye Mazıcan Servet Birgin İritaş Lütfiye Tutkun Vugar Ali Türksoy Ömer Hınç Yılmaz

Abstract

Introduction:

As
a result of increased use of ionizing radiation in medicine; health care workers
who expose to ionizing radiation are under risk of radiation related severe
health problems such as malignancies. We report four cases of nurses who worked
in ionizing radiation using  units for
long years.

CASE 1:

55
year-old woman was admitted to occupational medicine outpatient clinic with
papillary thyroid cancer diagnosis. She had total thyroidectomy operation three
years ago. She had been working as a nurse and performing or assisting
fluoroscopically-guided procedures for 32 years in algology department of
anesthesiology clinic.

CASE 2:

53
year-old woman was admitted to occupational medicine outpatient clinic with
papillary thyroid cancer diagnosis. She had total thyroidectomy operation one
year ago. She had been working as a nurse at the same department and making the
same job with Case 1 for 32 years.

CASE 3:

52
year-old woman was admitted to occupational medicine outpatient clinic with
irregular cold thyroid nodule. She had been working as a nurse at the same
department and making the same job with the previous cases for 16 years.

CASE 4:

31
year-old woman was admitted to occupational medicine outpatient clinic with
suspected follicular neoplasm. She had been working as a nurse for 14 years in
angiography laboratory.

They
all reported that dosimetry and appropriate personal protective equipment was
available in their unit for just last two years. They all didn’t have family
history of malignancy.

Conclusion:

Radiation
exposure is a well-known etiological factor for thyroid neoplasms. As
emphasized above, occupational radiation exposure related cancers are still a
problem for health care workers in Turkey. We need to improve the education
level of health care workers on radiation risks and establish properly designed
control programs for occupational radiation exposure in health care workers.

 

Key
Words:
Thyroid neoplasm, ionizing radiation exposure, occupational malignancy

Keywords

Musculoskeletal Ionizing Radiation Exposure Related Health Results in Nurses: Four Case Reports

References

• Meşide Gündüzöz (1), Canan Demir (2), Nejdiye Mazıcan (2), Servet Birgin İritaş (3), Lütfiye Tutkun (4), Vugar Ali Türksoy (5), Ömer Hınç Yılmaz(6) (1) Ankara Occupational Diseases Hospital, Departmant of Family Medicine, Ankara, Turkey (2) Ege University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Division of Work Health and Occupational Medicine, İzmir, Turkey (3) Ministry of Justice, Council of Forensic Medicine, Ankara, Turkey (4) Bozok University, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Yozgat, Turkey (5) Bozok University, Department of Public Health, Yozgat, Turkey (6) Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Ankara, Turkey