Does brachytherapy ever have serious complications?
There have been complications after brachytherapy resulting in hospitalizations. This is normally a very safe procedure, but the assertion that there has never been recorded instance of complications requiring hospitalization is false. Simply Googling the topic will tell. Doctors sometimes make mistakes in seed placement, as was revealed this summer at a VA hospital. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/21radiation.html But even aside from such egregious malpractice, complications requiring hospitalizations do occur. In 2004 a study showed that 1% of brachytherapy patients developed rectal fistulae, and I bet those guys had to be treated in a hospital. “Rectal complications after prostate brachytherapy.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15486745 The American Cancer Society, in its section on brachytherapy side effects, notes: Urinary problems: Severe urinary incontinence is not a common side effect. But frequent urination may persist in about 1 out of 3 patients who have brachyth
