Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2008 Aug;42(4):261-266.

Optimization of Inpatient Management of Radioiodine Treatment in Korea

• Park MJ
• Kim JH
• Jang JC
• Kim CH
• Jeong JM
• Lee DS

Abstract

We established a model to calculate radioactive waste from sewage disposal tank of hospitals to optimize the number of patients receiving inpatient radioiodine therapy within the safety guideline in our country. According to this model and calculation of radioactivity concentration using the number of patients per week, the treatment dose of radioiodine, the capacity and the number of sewage tanks and the daily amount of water waste per patient, estimated concentration of radioactivity in sewage waste upon disposal from disposal tanks after longterm retention were within the safety guideline (30 Bq/L) in all the hospitals examined. In addition to the fact that we could increase the number of patients in two thirds of hospitals, we found that the daily amount of waste water was the most important variable to allow the increase of the number of patients within the safety margin of disposed radioactivity. We propose that saving the water amount be led to increase the number of patients and they allow two patients in an already furnished hospital inpatient room to meet the increasing need of inpatient radioiodine treatment for thyroid cancer.

Keyword

radioiodine treatment; radiation safety; optimization

MeSH Terms

Humans
Inpatients
Korea
Radioactive Waste
Radioactivity
Retention (Psychology)
Sewage
Thyroid Gland
Waste Water
Radioactive Waste
Sewage
Waste Water