Radium treatment for hemangioma in early childhood. Reconstruction and dosimetry of treatments, 1920-1959.

Between 1920 and 1959, a total of 14,647 children younger than 18 months were treated at Radiumhemmet with ionizing radiation for skin hemangioma. Seventy-two percent of the children were treated with radium needles or tubes, which were put into glass capsules and then applied to the hemangioma. The absorbed doses to different organs have been measured in a tissue equivalent phantom, representing a 6-month-old child. For a standard treatment of 8 Gy to the hemangioma the mean absorbed doses to the brain, eye lens, parotid gland, thyroid, breast anlage and gonads from 28 different treatment areas were 0.03-0.2 Gy. The mean absorbed dose to the organs in younger (less than 2 months) and older (14-18 months) children were up to 50% higher (0.04-0.1 Gy) and 33% lower (0.02-0.06 Gy) respectively, than for a 6-month-old child. The uncertainty in organ absorbed doses for each patient depended mostly on the estimation of the distance between the applicator and the site.