Risk for the patient in interventional radiology

The growth that the number of procedures which can be classified as interventional radiology techniques has experienced in the last years, has been accompanied by the concern of professionals and public health authorities about the potential effects caused by the radiation employed. Nowadays, these procedures represent, among all the procedures employing radiation, the highest doses to patients, apart from the radiotherapy techniques. Since the early 1990s, some radiation-induced effects on the skin of patients undergoing some of these procedures, from transient erythema to more serious injuries, have been reported. this work reviews the most relevant aspects of the radiation related risks in this kind of procedures and the suggested strategies to minimize them. (Author) 33 refs.