title: Radiotherapy of the resected mandible following stainless steel plate fixation.
abstract: There is general concern among otolaryngologists that irradiation of a stainless steel prosthesis used in mandibular reconstruction may cause irradiation overdosage to adjacent tissues. A tissue-equivalent plastic/steel model, simulating the characteristics of a stainless steel, reconstructed mandible, was irradiated and measurements were made with a parallel plate ionization chamber. The results of our measurements show that irradiation of an implanted steel plate results in an overdosage (120%) "in front" and an underdosage (80%) "behind" the steel plate. The regions of overdosage and underdosage are 2 to 3 mm thick. The overall dose modification is greatly reduced when two opposing fields are used. We conclude that irradiation of a stainless steel, reconstructed mandible with a 6-mV photon beam through opposing fields does not significantly alter the amount of radiation delivered to surrounding tissues.
mesh_terms: D001860:Bone Plates; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008341:Mandibular Prosthesis; D008954:Models, Biological; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy; D013193:Stainless Steel
chemical_list: D013193:Stainless Steel