Answer to Question #3663 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

My son was intubated at birth with a collapsed trachea from a resected tumor that weakened his trachea. During his four months in the hospital, he received one x ray per day for almost two months straight. We questioned these x rays after a couple weeks but were told that these were necessary due to the high risk/possibility of infection from the resection sight and to the lungs from being intubated. I have seen responses about the dose of a chest x ray but if the estimated exposure to outside radiation holds true, this would be equivalent to 180 days of outside radiation. Do you think that this kind of exposure was necessary? Would you even think to assume that these x rays caused his leukemia at 1.5 years old?

Our Health Physics Society experts are basic scientists, not physicians. Thus we cannot comment on the medical necessity for your son's frequent chest x rays. However, no recognized authorities recommend cancellation of medically necessary x-ray exposure on grounds of radiation risk alone. The potential health benefits far outweigh the small (if any) radiation risk.

Leukemia is a well-known result of radiation exposure, but only from doses much greater than your son received. It is a late effect, occurring years to decades after exposure. Any case of leukemia occurring in an exposed individual within three to five years of exposure would almost certainly have occurred without that exposure. I must point out, however, that these data may not apply to newborns.

Conclusion: It is very unlikely that your son's leukemia was related to his neonatal x-ray exposures.

S. Julian Gibbs, DDS, PhD