Lead Gloves
Started by EruditeDoc
machine will boost radiation automatically to try and blow through the gloves
they decrease your sense of feel
My hand is never in the pic, even during DRGs or SCS
Use a lot of low dosed/pulsed/collimation instead
they decrease your sense of feel
My hand is never in the pic, even during DRGs or SCS
Use a lot of low dosed/pulsed/collimation instead
There are legitimate arguments on both sides. I use them, but try not to flouro my hand much at all. Even if I'm not flouroing my hand, they are the closest things to the xray beam when I take an xray. I also use heavy collimation and a light foot.
Keep hands out of field, no need for gloves.
I can keep my hands out except for the vertiflex’s. Sometime impossible to get the dilators properly placed without just grabbing them and fully securing them.
I used to use them as well. Even if you use them, keep your hands out of the beam. Your hands are potentially close, so certainly for higher exposure cases, there is less exposure. However, most of such gloves do not fit well and seem to be latex, which are both bad things for me. I don't use them anymore. Still don't want hands like Gabor though.
The Boston Scientific leaded globes are awesome. The SCS reps can’t sell them, the urology reps have them, or at least that was the case in 2015.
Not pain but do a lot of device implants/fluoro based procedures and thus far I’m not a fan. The times I’ve tried them they’ve reduced my tactile feel and just felt a little too heavy to be comfortable. Not sure which brand they are so maybe I should check out these Boston Sci ones.
The BSX gloves feel like regular gloves.
I use size 9 radiation gloves under my size 8.5 sterile gloves. I reuse the radiation gloves until they tear. Sometimes I need to pull the fingertips back a little initially, but I have no problem after that. I think the tactile feel thing is just a training issue. When I was a phlebotomist a million years ago all the old-timers "couldn't feel the vein" with gloves on and they would either just draw blood without or rip the index finger off. I did one-handed IV's on toddlers with sterile gloves on while mask ventilating with the other hand during residency. I still sew in my SCS trial leads while wearing lead-lined gloves covered by two sets of sterile gloves. No problem.
There is no doubt radiation gloves protect the digits from high radiation exposures, but as noted above, the single most important factor is having your hands out of the field of fluoroscopy where the radiation is 3,000-10,000 mrems/min; 1' away those values drop to 150 mrem/min. If your hands are in the field while wearing radiation gloves, some fluoroscopes will increase the mA and kV to penetrate while newer machines will not. But in any case, the amount of radiation you receive wearing fluoro gloves with your hands in the field is at least 2-10 times as much (assuming a 90% attenuation of beam by the lead) as much as you would receive by simply moving your non-radiation glove protected hands out of the beam. Scatter is only significantly important if your hands are in the field.
Im going to continue only wearing gloves IF there is a procedure where radiation of the hands is more likely to occur
