Texas Children's Hospital - MIBG Therapy Room

Designing a Highly Sensitive Treatment Suite
Houston, Texas

Texas Children's Hospital in Houston opened an I-131 MIBG suite to treat children with high-risk neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor that begins in the nerve tissue of infants and very young children. Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is a compound that can be combined with radioactive iodine (I-131) to provide targeted radiation therapy. During the therapy, patients receive therapeutic doses of MIBG to attack the tumors, which leaves patients radioactive for up to 10 days.

3

rooms

3/8

inch lead bricks

5

inch thick lead glass

Our design of this therapy room includes a three-room suite: a lead-lined patient room, an adjoining room with a lead-lined viewing window where family members can spend the night, and an entry area where clinicians can consult and observe the patient. The room was designed with 3/8-inch thick lead bricks in the walls to meet the requirements of the hospital's radiation physicist. Shielding elements also include sheet lead at the floor and ceiling, lead-lined steel doors; and a viewing window with five-inch thick lead glass. Impervious finishes and seamless materials were used on the floors and walls as a part of mandatory regulation so radioactive traces of the substances can be removed.

Client

Texas Children's Hospital

Services

  • Architecture

Markets

  • Health and Wellness

Regions

  • Southwest