Patent ID: 7465947

Claim:
Apparatus for reducing back-scattered x-rays incident on a person working with a patient on an operating table, the patient being exposed to x-rays from an x-ray source while on the table so that the back-scattered x-rays result from x-rays from the source being incident on the patient and/or table, the apparatus comprising an upper x-ray shield panel and a lower x-ray shield panel arrangement, the upper x-ray shield panel and the lower x-ray shield panel arrangement having thicknesses between front and back faces thereof and respectively having lower and upper edges in close enough proximity to each other to substantially attenuate the back-scattered x-rays incident on (a) the front face of the upper x-ray shield panel, (b) the lower x-ray shield panel arrangement, and (c) a gap between the edges while the front faces of the upper x-ray shield panel and lower x-ray shield panel arrangement are aligned, the upper shield panel being transparent to visible optical energy and pivotable about a vertical axis relative to the lower shield panel arrangement to enable one or both hands and one or both forearms of a person standing behind the back faces of the upper and lower shield panels to extend through an open region between the lower and upper edges resulting from pivoting of the upper x-ray shield panel relative to the lower x-ray shield panel arrangement about the vertical axis, the upper x-ray shield panel and lower x-ray shield panel arrangement together having a height and widths sufficiently greater than the height and width of the person standing behind the back faces so as to substantially prevent the back-scattered x-rays incident on the front faces of the upper x-ray shield panel and the lower x-ray shield panel arrangement while the front faces are aligned from being incident on the portion of the person behind the back faces.