Radiation doses from some common paediatric X-ray examinations in Sudan

Radiation doses to patients from some common paediatric X-ray examinations were studied in three hospitals in Khartoum state, Sudan. Entrance surface dose (ESD) was determined from exposure settings using DosCal software. Totally, 459 patients were included in this study. Mean ESDs obtained from anteroposterior projection for chest, skull, abdomen and pelvis for neonates falls in the range of 52-100, 115-169, 145-183, 204-242 microGy, respectively. For a 1-y-old infant, mean ESD range was 80-114, 153-202, 204-209, 181-264 microGy, respectively. Some doses for neonates and infants were exceeding the reference doses by >20%. The results highlighted that a good technique has to adhere to guidelines necessarily. As demonstrated elsewhere, patients' doses were high in departments using single-phase generators compared with those using constant potential. The results presented will serve as a baseline data needed for deriving reference doses for paediatric X-ray examinations in Sudan.