Clinical manifestations after acute complex radiation injuries

Summary

During a course of radiotherapy, 20 tumor patients accidentally received γ-ray irradiation as a result of unnoticed⁶⁰Cobalt machine trouble, so that they suffered from accidental γ-ray injuries which presented themselves as acute radiation sickness of bone marrow type associated with acute radiation skin affections. In the present paper these sequelae are discussed.

Our observations demonstrated that when tumor patients had received multifractional, mainly regional, γ-ray irradiation in large doses, most of them would suffer not only from acute radiation sickness but also from acute radiation skin injuries in varying degrees. In patients with acute radiation skin injuries of degree 2 and 3 associated with acute radiation sickness of mild or moderate type, no aggravation of interaction between these two kinds of injuries was noted, but in patients with acute radiation sickness of degree 4 associated with acute radiation sickness of moderate type, an interaction in varying degrees and with different characteristics could be observed, thus leading to complexity of the clinical picture and even threatening the life of some patients.