Patients' radiation doses during thoracic stent-graft implantation: the problem of long-lasting procedures.

Background: This article investigates patient radiation doses during implantation of thoracic stent-graft. Aortic stengraft implantation can be disturbed by many factors, which, in turn, lead to prolongation of the procedure time and, as a consequence, increase the radiation dose.

Methods: Measurements of radiation length (fluoroscopy and exposure), air kerma (AK) in grays, and dose-area product in grays·square centimeters were conducted simultaneously in 100 patients.