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How do you manage significant gas in patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy?

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Radiation Oncology · Michigan Healthcare Professionals, PC

This is tough, especially once the simulation is completed, the patient comes in for treatments and now you see very different anatomy.

The one thing that I have changed in practice - and I'm aware this is not always possible at higher volume centers - is to have the simulation at about the same tim...

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Radiation Oncology · Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center

I think the need to worry about this issue depends on what you're treating. If you are treating just the prostate +/- the proximal seminal vesicles, you are aligning the fields to the prostate and this is generally a non-issue. If you are including the prostate, SVs, and pelvic nodes, it can create ...

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Radiation Oncology · Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

If the patient is gassy at CT sim, unless it's in the rectum for a prostate patient, don't 'fix' it. All you're doing is setting yourself up for issues down the line. This mentality is also why I dislike enemas prior to CT sim because unless you're going to ask them to do it prior to each treatment,...

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Radiation Oncology · Northeast Georgia Medical Center

Red rubber catheter. Our therapists are adept at recognizing the need and at inserting a rectal tube to relieve the gas. Then, they repeat the cone beam. The difference is readily apparent!

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