Does "spreading" skin dose by rotating the C-arm during an intervention work?

PURPOSE: To determine if C-arm rotation is beneficial for reducing peak skin dose (PSD) in interventional radiology (IR) and, if so, under what circumstances.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Monte Carlo method was used to perform ray tracing for detailed analyses of the effect of C-arm rotation on PSD across a range of patient sizes, C-arm configurations, and procedure types. Automatic dose-rate control curves on modern fluoroscopic systems were measured for input into the simulations.
RESULTS: Rotating the C-arm to reduce the PSD is in most cases contraindicated and results in increased PSD when the C-arm is rotated from an original posteroanterior projection, in some cases resulting in a PSD increase by a factor of 5 or more. When prophylactic rotation was performed before a procedure, however, and the C-arm was rotated between opposed, distinct oblique angles, substantial reduction in PSD was achieved for patients of any size.
CONCLUSIONS: Rotating the C-arm during a procedure with the aim of "spreading" dose on the skin of the patient may not result in a reduction in PSD and may increase PSD. However, when used as a prophylactic measure combined with tight x-ray beam collimation, C-arm rotation can be used as a tool to reduce PSD. Tight collimation greatly increases the benefit of C-arm rotation.