Are members of the nursing and ancillary staff at risk when taking care of patients after PET/CT examination?
No, there is no significant risk to the staff taking care of these patients. However, radiation from patients undergoing other diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclide procedures such as bone scans or radioiodine therapy may pose a risk of radiation exposure to medical staff and does require attention. Patients undergoing PET/CT scan would add to this radiation exposure. Following simple guidelines for reducing contact time and increasing distance would suffice to minimize the radiation exposure to staff. For patients with urinary catheters or incontinence, standard precautions for dealing with biohazardous material would be sufficient to prevent undue radiation exposure and contamination.
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