Patient effective dose resulting from radiographic examinations.

To assess the risk involved, an attempt was made to calculate the effective dose delivered to patients undergoing radiographic examinations. The examination parameters of 704 radiographs were used to calculate the average effective dose for each one of 40 different types of radiographic examinations and the results were tabulated. A sample of 2571 radiographs representing 1586 patients, obtained over a period of 2 weeks, was used to calculate the dose administered to this group. It was found that the average effective dose/radiograph was 549 muSv and the average effective dose/patient was 890 muSv, taking into account the fact that, on average, there were 1.62 exposures per patient. These figures were extrapolated to the total number of patients going through the radiology department giving a total dose of 59.4 Sv each year, causing an average annual risk of about three malignancies.