title: Practical issues in treating heavy patients on a LINAC treatment couch.
abstract: Safe delivery of external beam radiation therapy to patients whose weight approaches the tolerance of a treatment couch presents some challenges, particularly if the couch has been in use for several years and has seen significant wear and tear. An analysis of treatment couch design can identify locations that become stressed and could potentially fail when supporting a heavy patient, leading to serious injury. Some practical methods to decrease the likelihood of couch failure are presented in this work. The design and implementation of a lifting apparatus to support the treatment couch is also described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263, USA. patrick.towns@roswellpark.org
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Towns
authors.forename: Blair
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Free
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cernica
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Podgorsak
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004867:Equipment Design; D004868:Equipment Failure; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007103:Immobilization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010315:Particle Accelerators / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors