Congress Abstracts 2006

202

TOO HOT TO HANDLE? A COLLABORATIVE STUDY TO DETERMINE RADIATION EXPOSURE TO NURSING STAFF CARING FOR INPATIENTS UNDERGOING BEXXAR THERAPY. Sheila Bruch, RN, OCN^®, Adam Arndt, and Peter Jenkins, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.

Radiation safety is a major consideration for nursing and support personnel when caring for patients who have received therapeutic doses of radioisotopes. In the summer of 2005, the University of Utah Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Department (BMT) began using the radiolabeled murine monoclonal antibody (MAb) I-131 tositumomab (Bexxar) in combination with conventional chemotherapy conditioning regimens for patients diagnosed with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. While Bexxar therapy is generally well tolerated enabling patients to be treated on an outpatient basis during this two week phase of their conditioning regimen, delayed toxicities related to immunologic response to foreign MAb mouse proteins may necessitate early admission to the BMT unit for supportive care. Since BMT nurses at our institution do not routinely care for patients receiving therapeutic doses of radioactive materials and our rooms are not shielded, nursing staff expressed concerns about potential environmental radiation contamination and high external exposure levels when caring for these patients on an inpatient basis.

The purpose of this project was to determine staff radiation exposure levels and environmental contamination associated with providing care for patients admitted less than 14 days after receiving therapeutic doses of Bexxar.

Radiological Health personnel surveyed a total of 3 inpatients and 2 rooms for environmental contamination and exposure rates associated with patient interaction over a period of 1 month utilizing a combination of meters, dosimeters and surface wipe analyses. Nursing staff were monitored for whole body exposure and for extremity dose using Luxel dosimeters and thermoluminescent dosimeters respectively.

Analysis of the survey data by Radiological Health Physicists showed urine to be the significant source of surface contamination by patients. Radiation exposure to nursing personnel was well below the federal maximum permissible dose level of 5,000 millirem/ year.