S2873
RTT - RTT education, training, and advanced practice
ESTRO 2026
achieving voluntary deep-inspiration breath hold in patients undergoing breast radiotherapy Brooke Holson, Jillian Kennard, Esha Patel, Mollie Yates Radiotherapy, The Royal Marsden, Surrey, United Kingdom Purpose/Objective: The standard practice for voluntary deep-inspiration breath hold (vDIBH) is to verbally instruct patients to perform breath hold.The objective of the audit was to determine whether the use of visual cues (coloured lights) would be a viable alternative to include patients unable to follow verbal instructions.The project aimed to compare patient and radiographer experience to establish whether visual cues were a successful A total of 60 patients requiring vDIBH for breast radiotherapy were recruited concurrently into the study. The control group (n=30) were scanned and treated as per standard practice with auditory cues. The study group (n=30) were scanned and treated using a visual prompt to achieve breath hold: red light indicated normal breathing, and green light signalled breath hold.Surveys produced in house, were given to each patient following Radiotherapy planning and after one treatment to determine patient satisfaction. Radiographers were also given a similar survey.The survey comprised three questions (image 1) for patients and four for radiographers to ascertain the usability, visualisation and satisfaction with suggestions for improvement or further comments. alternative option. Material/Methods:
instructions.As the results tables demonstrate, Patient satisfaction, compliance and understanding for both verbal and visual prompting for breath hold were comparable.Similarly, radiographer feedback suggested that the lights were easy to explain and visualise. In comparison additional verbal support was given to patients in the control group to assist breath hold. This would not be feasible for patients using light cues, which may have had an impact on radiographer overall satisfaction. Additional feedback comments by both radiographer and patients identify difficulties in correcting for under or over breathing in the study group (image 2).
Notably, patients required less prompting at CT than at treatment suggesting that due to the time gap between sessions, further training on day 1 of treatment may be required. Conclusion: Previously, patients that have been unable to achieve breath hold using auditory cues have been excluded from vDIBH and have been scanned and treated in free breathing. The light system allows optimal treatment to all patients who require breath hold radiotherapy. More training or the addition of further equipment who improve the success and accuracy of
Results: 29/30 patients were scanned successfully using visual cues. 1 patient was unable to follow the instructions in comparison 30/30 patients were scanned using verbal
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