Population dose and frequency of procedures in medical exposure in Sudan

Introduction Medical exposure is the major contributor of manmade radiation to the population. Knowing the frequency and levels of doses in each medical exposure procedure as a national level is recommended. Purpose The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency and the associated radiation dose during medical examinations in Sudan and to identify the procedures of major contributor to the total collective dose. Materials and Methods Radiation dose was measured in 50 hospitals for a total number of more than 3000 patients over the country. The frequency of procedures was estimated from a representative number of governmental and private hospitals. Results The frequency of diagnostic procedures was 301 per 1000 population. The ‘estimated total annual collective and total annual per caput effective dose were 6800 man Sv and 0.15 mSv, respectively. CT abdomen was the major contributor to the collective dose (18%) from diagnostic procedures with frequency of 5% .The estimated total annual frequency of diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures was 6.14 per 1000 population. The estimated total annual collective and total annual per caput effective dose were 16.3 man Sv and 0.001 mSv, respectively. The major contribution to the collective dose was from bone scan procedures (58%) with frequency of 34%. to the total frequency of nuclear medicine procedures .The most frequent treated radiotherapy site was breast (47%) with average prescribed dose of 42.4 Gy to the target volume in 15 fractions. Conclusion This study presented information about the magnitude and distribution of medical exposure in Sudan. Disclosure Authors confirm no any relationship bias their presentation.