Gonad Protection

Availability of gonad protection.

If gonad protection is not ready to hand, it can lead either to examinations being performed without its use or to the regular use of inappropriate materials as an alternative. This audit will help to identify protection needs and the appropriate allocation of gonad protection equipment within a department and thereby promote best radiation protection practice.

The standard: 

• A locally agreed standard with two components

• All X-ray rooms where plain film radiography is carried out should have a complete and appropriate set of gonad protection equipment available in an agreed location

• All X-ray rooms should have gonad shielding of an agreed quality and manufactured specifically for this purpose

Target: 

100%.

Indicators: 

- Percentage of rooms with a complete set of gonad protection

- Percentage of rooms with purpose-specified gonad shields

Data items to be collected: 

Record for each x ray room:

• Presence of gonad protection

• Place of storage

• Completeness of the gonad protection set

• Type of equipment available

• Whether purpose-specified gonad shields are present

Suggested number: 

All x ray rooms.

• Ask for a protection safety survey from the local Radiation Safety Adviser in order to solve problems revealed by (repeatedly) unsatisfactory audit results

• Consider the purchase of purpose-manufactured protection kits such as the King’s Lynn Gonad Protection System [1]

• Provide each room with a kit

• Store gonad shields on purpose-built racks. Remove and destroy all other lead protection alternatives (used for gonad protection) found in the rooms, which are not appropriate or purpose-produced

- Simple inspection proforma

- No assistance required

- Radiographer (10 minutes per room)

1. White J. The King’s Lynn Gonad Shield. Radiography 1977;43:137–8.

2. Plaut S. Radiation Protection in the X Ray Department. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993:113–4.

3. The Ionising Radiations (Protection of Persons Undergoing Medical Examination or Treatment) Regulations 1988 (POPUMET). London: HMSO, 1988.

4. National Radiological Protection Board. Occupational, public and medical exposure: guidance on the 1990 recommendations of the ICRP. Didcot: NRPB, 1990.

Taken from Clinical Audit in Radiology 100+ recipes RCR 1996