A REVIEW OF THE BACKGROUND TO THE DECISION TO WRITE-OFF FLUOROSCOPY EQUIPMENT IN 15 INSTANCES AND THE IMPACT OF PATIENT DOSE AND IMAGE QUALITY IN PRACTICE

Fluoroscopy units based on image intensifier/TV technology are commonp lace in hospitals. They are generally fixed installations, designed in a customised fashion for barium studies of the gastrointestinal tract , neurological, cardiovascular, vascular or other investigations. The cost of such units ranges from about 0.4M ECU to about 1.5M ECU. In ge neral, the performance of image intensifier/TV systems deteriorates wi th time and in practice the requirement to replace such systems arises in many cases before all the features of the unit are worn out. The d ifficulty in deciding at what point a unit needs to be replaced is hei ghtened by virtue of the fact that there are few published norms that can be used as an absolute guideline. This paper presents a review of the considerations that, in practice, led to the write-off of 15 fluor oscopy units, in the absence of such norms.