Strategy for the treatment of severe radiation injury in man

Abstract

The guidelines given in this section schematically describe the necessary facilities and principal measures to be taken in the case of radiation accidents, particularly those which may ultimately require bone marrow transplantation. Thus, we shall attempt to delineate a strategy for the treatment of individuals after serious partial or total body exposure to external radiation sources. The equally important issue of how to treat individuals after internal or external contamination with radioactive material is dealt with in a very cursory fashion only, since bone marrow transplantation will rarely be required after such contamination. There is a large body of literature dealing with that specific subject (142, 143).