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Title
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TomoTherapy: Implications on daily workload and scheduling patients
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Author
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Abstract
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| Purpose: The aim of the study was to measure the mean duration of treatments and to investigate the occasional events, with extreme influence on treatment time. Patients and methods: Time measurements were performed from the start of patient treatments (n = 72) and one year later (n = 27) on TomoTherapy. The time interval of the different procedures during treatment was measured. The cause of extra long treatment time was examined. All patients received a MV-CT scan prior to treatment. Results: The mean overall total treatment time per localization ranged from 21.3 to 27.4 min. In 4.1% of the total population extreme long time measurements have been observed, interruptions due to equipment malfunction being the main cause (57.5%). Comparison between time measurements performed after clinical implementation and time measurements performed one year later to examine the learning curve, showed no differences. Conclusion: Treating a patient on TomoTherapy takes approximately 25 min, yielding 19 patients to be treated within 8 h. However occasional treatment interruptions and variations in time of irradiation have a certain impact on daily patient scheduling for treatment, and influences the workload from day-to-day. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Radiotherapy and oncology. - Amsterdam
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Publication
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Amsterdam
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2008
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ISSN
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0167-8140
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DOI
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10.1016/J.RADONC.2007.10.036
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Volume/pages
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86
:2
(2008)
, p. 224-230
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ISI
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000253613800014
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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