Son Had Xray of Hips,not Shielded

Yes in all my years of having x-rays they are suppose to sheild the private area of men and women. And believe me I have had over 80 x-rays

Hi J.,
I have been an X-Ray Technologist for 25 years. I have taught radiographic positioning for 15 of those years. Although possible to shield for bilateral hips, it is very difficult and most often results in a repeat x-ray due to the fact that the lead gets in the way and hides the anatomy of interes. Feel safe that the amount of exposure is very limited, (milli-seconds of exposure). The x-ray tube is designed to only expose the area of interest.

As for you last statement. You are not dumb. Normally we shield anyone 50 years or younger,if possible. We do not shield if the anatomy of interest is the abdomen, pelvis, lower back, or hip areas due to the fact that the lead stops the x-rays from penetrating the part, thus not getting an image of the area of interest.

Hope this helps ease your worries.

P. T

I have a been an xray tech for 8 years now so I wanted to respond to your concern. You are correct in thinking it is important to shield "privates" however when taking xrays of the hips you risk covering the area of concern if you were to shield. This could result in having to repeat the xrays which would increase the exposure to the "privates". It's best to not shield and have to take the xray one time as opposed to shielding and risk of having to repeat them and exposing your child again. In the future, if your child has to have xrays of other areas like chest, hands, feet, legs or arms defintely make sure his "privates" are shileded!

I don't think that one xray will hurt him. Now if he were to continuously have this done it could make him sterile but not just one time.

im not quite sure what you are worried about. whether it was nurses seeing him naked or radiation exposure. the the radiation from one x-ray should not do any damage to him and if it was him being exposed the nurses are used to it. wither way i think he will be ok :)

Ah!!! No!!! I have had so many x-rays and have never had my privates shielded. I could be wrong.

I wouldn't worry about it at his age and the fact that you needed to see what was going on in that area eliminated the use of a shield. If you use a shield there, you wouldn't see anything on the x-ray because it totally blocks the rays that create the imaging on the film. Besides, I hope it's a number of years before he decides to become a Father! He'll have totally new cells long before that becomes an issue. ;-)

I can understand your concern, but, if he was shielded, the doctor wouldn't have been able to see what they needed to in the hip joint. so, the xray tech did do the right thing.

Although it's important to shield whenever possible, the angle needed to produce the necessary views might have prevented. You might want to call to verify that. They need to be aware IF the tech isn't shielding when possible.

I'm not quite sure about X-rays, but I'm a secretary in a CT dept (the donut-shaped scanner, not the long tube) at a hospital. I'm not a CT technician, but I can tell you what our dept does from what I can see/hear & from asking questions. They do not routinely shield body parts on adults or children because it's not alot of radiation given in general nowadays. If he was an patient who was very sick & having scans done frequently, that can lead to other problems such as cancer from what the CT techs tell me. What they do instead of shielding is give them less radiation than they would an adult when they scan a child.

The only time they shield is if a parent is in the room with the child (we shield the parent) or if the patient is pregnant.

Did you ever find out what the pain was from. My daughter had osteomyelitis when she was one that stemmed from MRSA. She started limping for awhile and after x-rays and mri's they found a nickel size hole in her hip bone. She had to have a central line put in and we had to administer antibiotics for 3 months. I just was curious what the pain was from.

J., Some parts of the pelvis would not have shown up on the xray if they had used a shield. My son had a stress fracture on his pelvis that would not have shown up on the xray if they had shielded his genitals.

Hello,

I am an x-ray technolgist and we do shield for every exam except abdomen, pelvis, and hips. It is not possible to shield that area without obscuring the essential pelvis anatomy. The amount of radiation received from one exam is not significant enough to really damage the reproductive organs.

Hope this was helpful!

My daughter went through many xrays of her legs when she was younger, the xray techs didn't cover her up either. The way I see it, they are the specialists, not me, they should know what they are doing. Just this year my son and daughter both ended up having xrays done on their arms and neither one of them were told to put on a radiation apron. In other words, I wouldn't worry about it. They are the specialists.