Understanding the situation, risks and providing adequate care for the patient

Over-exposures in radiotherapy or radiology can happen, about 10 cases a year in France. A scale with 7 levels has been defined to rank the seriousness of the event. Over-exposures are not considered as medical emergencies because the evolution of the lesions is generally slow. Each case leads to an investigation first to know the radiation dose received by the patient in order to provide the adequate care and secondly to know the real cause of the over-exposure in order to prevent it to happen again. Cell therapy with the use of stem cells has been proved successful for the treatment of some lesions. (A.C.)