Health physics
-
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a disorder characterized by lateral curvature of the spine and is the most prevalent orthopedic disorder in this age group. The diagnosis and management of AIS requires multiple full-spinal radiographs, leading to potentially high doses of ionizing radiation. The purpose of this study was to estimate in a cohort of subjects with AIS the organ-specific doses of x-ray radiation from spinal radiographs and to calculate the lifetime number of cancers attributable to these exposures. ⋯ About 10 excess incident cancer cases (out of a total of 399 projected) and about four excess deaths (out of a total of 247 projected) were estimated to occur over the lifetime of the 1,847 women in the cohort. This is equivalent to an excess lifetime risk of about 1 to 2% (12-25/1,000) among women. Although doses today from spinal radiographs are considerably lower than two decades ago, doses and risks can be further reduced through the use of the posteroanterior view in place of the more traditional anteroposterior view.