title: [Medical interventions: external and internal decontamination of people].
abstract: In most cases, external contamination of persons can be monitored easily. Nevertheless, proper measurement techniques must be used. For that reason, contamination measurements must be carried out by health physics professionals. In all efforts to decontaminate intact skin, care must be taken to prevent skin damage. Internal contamination can pose much more problems. Here, decontamination is based on dilution and/or complexation therapy, thus reducing the uptake in critical organs and tissues. Also by stimulating the excretion of radionuclides, internal doses can be reduced significantly. Treatment of contaminated wounds always is a priority because of the internal contamination risk. Radioactive waste has to be collected on an individual basis (for dosimetry purposes). Distance must be kept between radioactive waste and monitoring instruments. Every effort should be made to prevent the spread of contamination; only urgent life saving actions may be an exception. There certainly will be a need for counseling those suffering from the psychological impact of (even minor) contamination accidents. From a public health perspective, the long term psychosocial effects of nuclear catastrophes may eventually be more prevalent than their physical health consequences. Each (general) practitioner should be vigilant to suspicious clinical signs that may be radiation related. However, high threshold doses to critical organs (bone marrow, skin, small intestine) must be crossed before clinical signs arise. In Belgium, several most interesting texts regarding radiation problems have already been distributed to medical and paramedical professionals, partly by the authorities.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Holmstock
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D003666:Decontamination / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods*