Abstract
A crew exposed to a high dose of ionizing radiation will fall into three categories: (1) those who recover with minor medical intervention, (2) those who require high-level medical care (such as bone marrow stem cell transplantation), and (3) those triaged for palliative care [1, 2]. In reality, given the lack of medical supplies, the second group will fall into the third category. In such an event (see boxed text), the crew medical officer (CMO) will need to remove external contamination, estimate the radiation dose (Table 8.1), and administer fluids and electrolytes (Figs. 8.1 and 8.2). That is assuming the CMO is not one of those who falls into the second or third category! After 48 h, a second patient scoring will be conducted, and documentation of therapeutic management and organ failure will be performed.
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Notes
- 1.
In reality, palliative care will not be an option. Without stem cell transplantation, a crewmember will not survive. Rather than use life support consumables, the only viable option for this crewmember would be voluntary euthanization.
- 2.
Patients diagnosed with severe neutropenia would be candidates for being treated with the following cytokines: Filgrastim at 2.5–5 μg/kg/day subcutaneously; Sargramostim at 5–10 μg/kg/day subcutaneously, and Pegfilgrastim at 6 mg subcutaneously.
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Seedhouse, E. (2018). Treating Acute Radiation Syndrome. In: Space Radiation and Astronaut Safety. SpringerBriefs in Space Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74615-9_8
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