Patient exposures to HIV during nuclear medicine procedures.

Although the potential for transmission of bloodborne pathogens to patients through transfusion of contaminated blood is well known, it is less widely recognized that such transmission can also occur during medical procedures involving withdrawal and reinjection of blood or blood products (e.g., nuclear medicine procedures). Since 1989, three patients (two in hospitals in the United States and one in the Netherlands) undergoing nuclear medicine procedures have been reported to have inadvertently received intravenous injections of blood or other material from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Two of these patients are known to have become infected with HIV during these procedures; HIV test results are not available for the third patient. This report summarizes these three incidents and provides recommendations for preventive measures.