Medical Management of Radiation Injuries

By IAEA

This publication focuses on the medical management of individuals involved in radiation emergencies, especially those who have been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation. Its primary objective is to provide practical information, to be used for treatment decisions by medical personnel during a radiation emergency. It also addresses general and specific measures for the medical management of individuals who have been internally contaminated with radionuclides. This publication is complementary to other publications developed by the IAEA in the medical area of radiation emergencies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: International Atomic Energy Agency
• Release date: Jun 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9789201066220

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MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF RADIATION INJURIES

SAFETY REPORTS SERIES No. 101

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF RADIATION INJURIES

JOINTLY SPONSORED BY THE

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES

AND PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION

ENDORSED BY THE

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGY,

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE,

EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR RADIOTHERAPY AND ONCOLOGY,

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RADIOPATHOLOGY,

LATIN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SOCIETIES OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY

AND SOCIETY OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

VIENNA, 2020

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at:

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fax: [phone]

tel.: [phone]

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© IAEA, 2020

Printed by the IAEA in Austria

May 2020

STI/PUB/1891

IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Names: International Atomic Energy Agency.

Title: Medical management of radiation injuries / International Atomic Energy Agency.

Description: Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2020. | Series: Safety Reports Series no. 101, ISSN 1020–6450 ; no. 101 | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: IAEAL 20-01292 | ISBN 978–92–0–107019–7 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 978–92–0–161919–8 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Radiation injuries. | Emergency medicine. | Emergency management.

Classification: UDC 614.876 | STI/PUB/1891

FOREWORD

Literature on the medical management of patients involved in radiation emergencies has evolved significantly since the publication of the first IAEA medical publication on emergency preparedness and response. Issued in 1978, Safety Series No. 47, Manual on Early Medical Treatment of Possible Radiation Injury, was the first IAEA publication aimed exclusively at first aid and early medical treatment of workers involved in accidents resulting from external or internal exposure to radiation. In 1988, Safety Series No. 88, Medical Handling of Accidentally Exposed Individuals, established a set of general criteria and recommendations based on lessons learned from recent accidents to aid specialists engaged in the medical handling of overexposed persons. In 1998, Safety Reports Series No. 2, Diagnosis and Treatment of Radiation Injuries, updated the information provided on the early medical management of radiation victims, drawing special attention to localized radiation injuries, which were the most frequently observed direct health effects of ionizing radiation.

In the past two decades, developments in scientific research and diagnostic methods, and new medical techniques and new applications in dose assessment and treatment have significantly changed the means and methods of treating radiation injuries, and new scientific knowledge has been acquired from clinical and preclinical experience. The medical management of individuals (patients) involved in nuclear and radiological emergencies has progressed considerably, and the new medical approaches have incorporated lessons from experience gained from accidents occurring in such diverse settings as industry; medicine; and source control, replacement and disposal.

This Safety Report on the medical management of radiation injuries includes new information on medical preparedness and response to nuclear or radiological emergencies. It is set within the overall framework outlined in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 7, Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency, which, in Requirement 12, addresses the management of the medical response in a nuclear or radiological emergency. This publication supersedes Safety Reports Series No. 2.

The publication is co-sponsored by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); it is endorsed by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), the International Association of Radiopathology (IAR), the Latin American Association of Societies of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (ALASBIMN) and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

The IAEA officer responsible for this publication was E.D. Herrera Reyes of the Incident and Emergency Centre.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from its use.

This publication does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person.

Guidance provided here, describing good practices, represents expert opinion but does not constitute recommendations made on the basis of a consensus of Member States.

The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries.

The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA.

The IAEA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet web sites referred to in this book and does not guarantee that any content on such web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

The authoritative versions of the publications are the hard copies issued and available as PDFs on www.iaea.org/publications.To create the versions for e-readers, certain changes have been made, including the movement of some figures and tables.

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

1.2. Objective

1.3. Scope

1.4. Structure

2. GENERAL CONCEPTS OF RADIATION EMERGENCIES AND MEDICAL MANAGEMENT

2.1. Types of radiation emergency

2.2. Modes of exposure to radiation and radioactive sources

2.3. Clinical and radiological triage

2.4. Principles of medical management

3. EXTERNAL EXPOSURE

3.1. Local radiation injury

3.2. Acute radiation syndrome

4. CONTAMINATION WITH RADIONUCLIDES

4.1. External contamination

4.2. Internal contamination

5. COMBINED RADIATION INJURIES

6. EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION AND MENTAL HEALTH ASPECTS

6.1. Emergency communication during radiation emergencies

6.2. Mental health aspects of radiation emergencies

7. RECORD KEEPING

Appendix I: MEDICAL PREPAREDNESS FOR RADIAT ION EMERGENCIES

Appendix II: BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF IONIZING RADIATION: BASIC INFORMATION FOR THE GENER AL PRACTITIONER

REFERENCES

ABBREVIATIONS

CONTRIBUTORS TO DRAFTING AND REVIEW

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

According to IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 7, Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency [1], an emergency is:

A non-routine situation or event that necessitates prompt action, primarily to mitigate a hazard or adverse consequences for human life, health, property or the environment. This includes nuclear and radiological emergencies and conventional emergencies such as fires, releases of hazardous chemicals, storms or earthquakes. This includes situations for which prompt action is warranted to mitigate the effects of a perceived hazard.

Nuclear and radiological emergencies have provided considerable information which has increased the medical knowledge related to the diagnosis, management and treatment of individuals with radiation injuries. For the purposes of this publication, nuclear or radiological emergencies are subsumed under the term ‘radiation emergencies’.

The accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on 26 April 1986 resulted in the hospitalization of 237 patients identified as severely overexposed persons [2]. Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was diagnosed in 134 persons admitted to the specialized hospitals in Moscow and Kyiv. Among them, 28 died within three months of ARS associated with extensive local radiation burns combined with thermal burns [3]. ARS was not confirmed in another 103 hospitalized patients. Nineteen additional patients died in the period 1987–2004 of various causes; however, their deaths were not directly attributable to radiation exposure. Among the general population exposed to the Chernobyl radioactive fallout, however,