Caracterización Paramétrica de Sondas Intraoperatorias Gamma no Imagenológicas para Cirugía Radioguiada

In the last few years, the use of intraoperative gamma probes has been increased; its success is connected with the enhance of surgical procedures that involves that technology. This paper is focused on how to make performance and quality control tests to gamma probes in Cuba. The test was performed based in the implementation of NEMA NU 3-2004 “Performance Measurement and Quality Control Guidelines for Non-Imaging Intraoperative Gamma Probes” normative, using devices designed for such purpose. Results of 11 performance tests are shown, which are between normal ranges previously reported in literature and manufacturer manual. Sensitivity and shielding effectiveness values, obtained in air were above 5cps/kBq and 99% respectively for all measured detectors. Spatial resolution was better due to the extra collimator effect (15 mm less at small detector). NAVIGATOR probe from one of institution tested resulted unfit for surgical procedures exceeding length of one hour, because battery must be replaced.