Radiation doses to neonates requiring intensive care.

Radiological investigations have become accepted as an important part of the range of facilities required to support severely ill newborn babies. Increasing numbers of these very small premature babies now survive although they may undergo a considerable number of diagnostic X-ray examinations within the first few weeks of life. Since the infants are so small, many of the examinations are virtually "whole-body" irradiations and it was thought that the total doses received might be appreciable. A group of such babies admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Sheffield over a six-month period have been studied. X-ray exposure factors used for each examination have been noted and total skin, gonad and bone marrow doses calculated, supplemented by measurements on phantoms. It is concluded that in most cases the doses received are of the same order as those received over the same period from natural background radiation and probably less than those received from prenatal obstetric radiography, so that the additional risks from the diagnostic exposure are small. The highest doses are received in CT scans and barium examinations and it is recommended that the need for these should be carefully considered and requests for such examinations only made by experienced staff.