title: A randomised comparison of three different immobilisation devices for thoracic and abdominal cancers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient immobilisation is critically important for both highly conformal conventionally fractionated radiotherapy and for stereotactic body radiotherapy. Different immobilisation devices are available to maintain patient position for radiotherapy but the most suitable one remains unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-five patients were randomly allocated to one of three immobilisation devices; the Q fix arm shuttle, BodyFIX without wrap or BodyFIX with wrap. Patients were imaged before and after treatment to ascertain intra-fraction and inter-fraction motion. Bony anatomy was used for matching to determine the positional accuracy of each device. Treatments were timed using a standard method. Patient comfort and staff satisfaction questionnaires were also issued to determine comfort, ease of use and preferences for each device.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The BodyFIX without wrap was the more accurate device; however, the differences between the devices were not statistically significant. The BodyFIX with wrap was found to take significantly longer to set up and set down compared to the arm shuttle and the BodyFIX without wrap (all P < 0.001). Patients (37%) marginally preferred the BodyFIX with wrap. Most (81%) staff preferred the BodyFIX without wrap.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Immobilisation using the BodyFIX without wrap was deemed to be suitable for clinical use. It was a clinically accurate device, the more efficient in terms of set up and set down time, the most preferred by staff and was accepted by patients.
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hubie
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Maddison
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bydder
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Jonny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McNabb
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kearvell
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Concannon
authors.affiliation: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.|Centre for Applied Statistics, University Western Australia, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Chrianna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bharat
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Science, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Appleyard
mesh_terms: D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000328:Adult; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D007103:Immobilization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D057240:Patient Preference; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013899:Thoracic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*
keywords: Abdomen; immobilisation; lung; radiotherapy