The necessity of follow-up for radiation skin injuries in patients after percutaneous coronary interventions: radiation skin injuries will often be overlooked clinically.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) offers great benefit that could improve a patient's quality of life. However, numerous case reports of patient radiation injury resulting from PCI are being published, these reports likely represent a small fraction of the actual cases.
PURPOSE: To demonstrate the appropriate duration of patient follow-up after PCI to identify radiation effects.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: We evaluated 400 consecutive PCIs. The radiation dose (dose-area product, cumulative dose, maximum skin dose), number of cine runs, and fluoroscopic time were recorded for all patients. The skin on the patients' backs was reviewed periodically after PCI.
RESULTS: Radiation skin effects occurred in six patients from PCI of the right coronary artery in chronic total occlusion (CTO) patients (mild erythema; occurrence rate 1.5%). Skin injury in two patients appeared in cycles. In most cases, erythema was vividly seen at 4 weeks after PCI.
CONCLUSION: Careful observation for skin injury is needed. At a few days following PCI, early erythema can be detected through careful observation by well-trained staff. At 7-10 days after PCI, most erythematous pigmentation can be detected. At 4 weeks after PCI, most skin erythema appears clearly, however, some cases of skin erythema occur without back pain. After that, follow-up every 6 months is needed to detect the reappearance of erythema.