Plutonium--americium contamination aspects of a dry box involving hand amputation
- ed.
From third Health Physics Society midyear topical symposium; Los Angeles, California, USA (29 Jan 1969). See CONF-690103-P3. An employee whose hand was amputated at the wrist by a milling machine in a dry box accident was brought to Presbyterian-University Hospital. About an hour after he arrived, his contaminated hand was brought to the hospital and assessed for contamination. Initial counting of the hand indicated high levels of Pu-Am contamination, which influenced the medical decision regarding rejoining the hand. Several hours after the patient was brought to the hospital, the hand and the stump had been debrided and decontaminated, but there were still hundreds of times the maximum permissible body burden (based on bone) of Pu-Am on the hand. However, it was deemed unlikely that very much of the contamination would enter the blood stream during the anastomosis of blood vessels and grafting of skin. Thus, the hand was reattached, but Further evaluation of the patient showed that a negligible amount of radioactivity remained on the suture of the stump, the remaining activity on the stump was removed with the removal of the remaining scabs, and no measurable internal burden remained after several weeks. Details of the emergency management are reported, together with measurements of the distribution of the remaining contamination on the skin of the hand. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Pittsburgh
- NSA Number:
- NSA-29-029861
- OSTI ID:
- 4311451
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. Health Physics Society midyear topical symposium, Los Angeles, California, USA, 29 Jan 1969; Other Information: See CONF-690103--P3. Orig. Receipt Date: 30-JUN-74; Related Information: Health physics operational monitoring. Vol. 3
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Local Therapy for Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Hands and Feet: Is Amputation Necessary? A Report From the Children's Oncology Group
Prospective use of xenon /sup 133/Xe clearance for amputation level selection