Long-term follow-up of the patients injured in the Lilo Radiological Accident.

This paper presents follow-up of the patients injured in the Lilo Radiological Accident in 1996-1997, Georgia, and discusses initial and intermediate medical accident management. There is also given estimation of the patients' medical status after 11 years since Lilo Radiological Accident. Consequently, the main lessons to be drawn from this accident are (1) Satisfactory initial surgery did not prevent in all cases the occurrence of some secondary (often localized) radionecrotic ulcerations several months, or even years, later; and (2) Skin lesions which spontaneously healed and appeared stable at the initial examination could deteriorate, with secondary reopening, a long time (months to years) thereafter. Moreover, a number of sequelae were responsible for severe impairment of these patients' life quality; functional sequelae (finger amputations, etc.) for some of them, cosmetic ones for almost all patients, oligo or azoospermia in all cases, and various understandable psychomatic symptoms and nervous breakdowns.