Management of children with congenital heart defect: state of the art and future prospects

Radiation Exposure in Pediatric Interventional Procedures

The article is part of the series of articles on radiation protection. You can find further articles in the special section of the CVIR issue. The expanding applications of interventional procedures coupled with the potential harmful effects of ionizing radiation highlight the need to assess the delivered radiation dose and establish an effective radiation protection program, particularly in the radiosensitive pediatric population. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of interventional procedures as well as the unique characteristics of children, the management of radiation dose is proving to be quite challenging. The aim of the current article is to provide an overview of the radiation exposure in pediatric patients during interventional procedures focusing on the importance of radiation protection in the pediatric population, the reported radiation doses and the techniques of minimizing radiation dose.