Figure 1.

Scattered radiation during intraoperative fluoroscopy of the lumbar spine. Primary beam: x-ray beam prior to any interaction with the patient, grid, table or image intensifier. Exit beam: beam that interacts with the detector. Leakage radiation (green): leakage from the x-ray tube housing that does not contribute significantly to staff dose. Scattered radiation (red): radiation resulting from Compton scattering in the patient that contributes most to staff radiation dose. Backscatter of radiation is more pronounced toward the source side.