Decontaminating cobalt-60 from wounds

Abstract

Removing radionuclide contamination from wounds in tissue is essential to minimizing incorporation and dose to an individual. This experiment compared the effectiveness of decontaminating wounds inflicted in pig tissue that were contaminated with cobalt-60. The process was established to compare three decontamination methods consisting of: commercially available, non-prescription, surfactant based, non-ionic wound cleanser spray; physiologic saline solution spray; physiologic saline solution pour. Three wound types were used: smooth incision, jagged cut, and blunt force trauma wounds. The cleanser spray and the saline spray were more effective at decontaminating all three wounds than the saline pour. The difference between the cleanser spray and saline spray was not statistically significant, but the cleanser spray did decontaminate the wound to a lower mean value. The spray pressure used for the saline and cleanser sprays produced the most noticeable impact in the decontamination process.