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Departments of Medical Physics and Radiotherapy, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU
This excerpt was created in the absence of an abstract.
A partially afterloaded line source system was developed in Edinburgh and put into use in 1960 (Campbell and Douglas, 1966). In this system the intra-uterine source was preloaded and only the vaginal component afterloaded. With the availability of small caesium sources a modification has been made to allow full but manual afterloading. The sources manufactured by the Radiochemical Centre at Amersham, are 5 mm in length and 2 mm in diameter. The treatment régime is very similar to that described by Campbell and Douglas (1966).
A new flexible intra-uterine applicator has replaced the straight tube used in the earlier system, and the construction of the complete applicator is shown in Fig. 1. The external appearance of the vaginal applicator has not changed and still consists of Perspex bobbins and a perineal bar threaded over a stainless steel tube. Lead shielding is used posteriorly, and the applicators are available from 2 cm to 4 cm in diameter. The length of the intravaginal portion can be varied by altering the position of the perineal bar, and a screw locking nut at the lower end keeps the component parts firmly in place. The main difference between the present applicator and the previous one is that the central steel tube is not sealed at the proximal end. This allows the extrusion of a flexible Portex tube into the uterus after passage through the central steel tube of the vaginal applicator.
Received for publication February 1, 1976.
Revision received July 1, 1976.
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