Thaindian News

Apr 09 (THAINDIAN NEWS) In an announcement released on Thursday, the United States Food and Drug Administration said that it has received almost 1200 complaints in the last ten years about medical devices which are used to give radiation treatments to cancer patients. They are calling on the manufacturers to help improve the safety of this medical equipment. In October, the radiation exposure issue became known when the FDA announced that it was investigating 206 cases of patients who had been exposed to toxic levels of radiation while undergoing CT scans of the brain. This happened at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Letters were sent by the FDA to 93 different manufacturers of radiation treatment equipment, asking them to be a part of a workshop designed by the FDA to address the issues and worries about exposure of patients to excessive radiation from the treatments and procedures. Some of the companies which receives letters from the FDA were ” Varian Medical Systems, Philips, Siemens, GE Healthcare, Hitachi and many private firms.

A meeting was held last month by the FDA with makers of this type of diagnostic imaging equipment so that they could brainstorm ways to keep patients safe from excessive amounts of radiation. In higher doses, skin burns, cataracts, and other physical harm can come from radiation. A date has not yet been set for the workshop, but the FDA says that it wants to focus on specials controls and ways to make these devices safe, as well as further testing. “This is a collaborative process. FDA doesn’t have all the answers. What we want to do is to hear from the people who use these things, who design these things,” FDA spokesman Dick Thompson said.