Introduction
With the advances in technology, open surgical interventions have
decreased in modern urology practice and the use of endourological
procedures has increased.1 Frequently used
endourological procedures such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy,
endoscopic ureter stone treatments, and retrograde intrarenal operations
are mostly performed under fluoroscopy guidance. During these
fluoroscopic-guided procedures, surgeons, patients and operating room
staff are exposed to a significant amount of ionizing
radiation.2
Stochastic (mutation and cancer) and deterministic effects may occur as
a result of radiation exposure. This effect is related to the duration,
dose and protection used.1 For this reason, the
International Radiation Commission recommends that the radiation dose
exposed should not exceed an average of 20 mSv (milisievert)/year in a
five years period.3
In order to avoid these negative effects of radiation, personal
protective equipment such as lead apron, thyroid shield, radiation
protection gloves and goggles should be used and basic principles should
be observed.1 In addition, it is necessary to use a
dosimeter to determine the cumulative radiation dose
exposed.6 However, studies on this subject have
revealed that protective equipment and dosimeters are not used enough
among urologists, and there is a lack of knowledge and awareness on this
subject.2,6,7
Urology residency is an important occupational group with a high risk of
exposure to radiation. In Turkey, urology residency training is applied
in university hospitals and training and research hospitals. Although
there are studies evaluating the awareness of radiation exposure among
the urology residents, there is no study comparing the tendency to use
fluoroscopy in different institutions in the literature. In this study,
we evaluated the tendency, knowledge, awareness and behavior patterns of
urology residents in Turkey regarding the use of fluoroscopy in
different institutions.