Patent Number: 039420230
Section: summary

The present invention relates to a protective screen based on mortar, used in the field of radiology and intended to be placed directly or indirectly on a patient's skin. Hitherto, mortars based on plaster, mixed with a constituent which absorbs medical radiation, were used in order to protect the zone of the patient adjacent to the zone of the patient to be irradiated. By medical irradiation or medical radiation, there is to be understood any irradiation of the type comprising X, .alpha., .beta. or .gamma. rays. It is known to use barium sulphate as the absorbing constituent. The positioning of a mortar based on plaster and barium sulphate requires working by hand and with a trowel, since the mortar in the viscous state must be applied by hand and used on the skin of the patient, so that it has an even thickness calculated as a function of the position and of the nature of the irradiation zone. Very frequently, the thickness of the mortar applied cannot be kept constant and the layer applied always shows some unevenness which, after the mortar has set, cannot be corrected. It is obvious that the application of the mass of plaster-based mortar is a dirty and unpleasant operation for the medical staff and the patient. It is an object of the present invention to overcome the abovementioned disadvantages and to produce a protective screen which can be applied directly or indirectly to a patient's skin, that is to say ready for use without requiring any unpleasant and long preparation, and which has a perfectly continuous surface. According to the invention there is provided a mortar based protective screen, for radiological purposes and intended to be placed directly or indirectly on a patient's skin, comprising: a flexible and leakproof jacket, two parallel walls to said jacket; a side wall joining the said two parallel walls and having a surface area small relative to that of each parallel wall; at least one settable resin within said jacket; a fine particulate filler of at least one substance which absorbs medical radiation and is evenly mixed with the said resin; and a window permeable to medical radiation and positioned to permit radiation to pass between the parallel walls of the jacket. A curing agent may be brought into contact with the settable resin, inside the jacket, and mixed with the contents of the jacket in order that the curing agent reacts with all the thermosetting resin. This jacket, still in the malleable state, is then applied to the zone of the patient to be treated, taking good care that the zone to be irradiated coincides accurately with the window in the jacket. A flat metal plate may be applied to the free face of the jacket parallel to the patient's body in order to shape the synthetic mass present inside the jacket by flattening. The plate is removed after the mass has hardened to form a synthetic mortar. It can thus be seen that, with the screen of this invention, there is no longer any contact between the product and its handler or the patient, and that moreover, after irradiation, this jacket can be removed easily from the patient. If the temperature is too high during the hardening of the synthetic mortar it is advantageous to place a flexible heat insulating mass, for example a sheet of foam rubber, on that side of the jacket which faces the patient.