Unimed Litoral Hospital

Unimed Litoral is a medical work cooperative operating in the metropolitan region of Itajaí, Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. With more than 2,000 employees and about 700 doctors, it is one of the best qualified private health structures in Brazil.

This hospital has 40 medical offices, an oncology outpatient clinic, a diagnostic imaging centre, cardiology, orthopaedics and robotic surgery, adult emergency and children's emergency rooms, ICUs, 20 operating theatres, 35 ICU beds, more than 200 inpatient beds and other services.

Airtightness and X-ray protection

Manusa do Brasil was commissioned to manufacture and install a total of six lead lined hermetic doors for access to the leaded operating theatres.

Usually in this type of operating theatre there is exposure to ionising radiation due to the performance of certain tasks such as taking X-rays with portable X-ray equipment, implantation or extraction of radioactive elements or the use of fluoroscopes. Operating theatre staff may also be exposed to ionising radiation received as scattered radiation generated by the patient (when taking X-rays, using fluoroscopes and image intensifiers); or receive radiation as a result of emission generated by the patient himself (implantation of radioactive elements in the patient).

Therefore, it is vital that in such operating theatres the door is not only airtight, but also leaded, to effectively block ionising radiation, such as X-rays or gamma rays; this makes them essential in hospitals (radiology wards, operating theatres) and research laboratories. They ensure that people outside these areas are not exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.