Assessment of the radiation exposure of surgeons and patients during a lumbar microdiscectomy and a cervical microdiscectomy: a French prospective multicenter study

Abstract Objective Cervical and lumbar disc herniations are the most frequently carried out in spinal surgery procedures. Often, a few snapshots during the procedure are necessary to validate the level or to position the implant. The objective of this study is to quantitatively estimate the radiation received by a spine surgeon and the patient during a low dose radiation procedure. Materials and methods We conducted a prospective multicenter study in France from November 2014 to April 2015. Four spine centers were monitored for radiation received by surgeons during interventions for lumbar disc herniation and cervical disc herniation. Results A total of 134 patients were included. For lumbar disc herniation, the average exposure for the surgeon was 0.584 μSv on the chest, 5.291 μSv on the lens and 9.295 μSv on the hands per procedure. For these procedures, the DAP was 94.2 ± 198.4 cGy.cm2 and the fluoroscopic time was 10.2 ± 16.9 sec. For a herniated cervical disc, the average exposure for the surgeon was 0.122 μSv on the chest, 3.106 μSv on the lens and 7.143 μSv on the hands per procedure. For these procedures, the DAP was 35.7 ± 72.1 cGy.cm2 and the fluoroscopic time was 19.7 ± 13.7 sec. Conclusions Exposure to X-rays for surgeons and patients during surgery for lumbar disc herniation is higher than during a surgery for cervical herniation disc. Our results show that radiation exposure to the spine surgeon is still far below annual dose limits.