CCD-Video Endoscope Subjected to X-Ray

In minimally invasive surgery video endoscopes show salt-and-pepper artifacts when used together with an X-ray device. Since the semiconductor material of the CCD chip interacts with the X-ray photons via photoelectric absorption and Compton scattering, it is not clear if these interactions produce irreversible damages within a typical working window in all day use in a clinical environment. The present study was accomplished at the X-ray Lab of the RheinAhrCampus Remagen in the period between March and July 2006. It deals with the question if a CCD chip of a modern medical endoscope undergo irreversible alterations during a 28 hour radiation load using a commercial C-arm. The report describes the experimental set-up and the characteristic properties for CCD quality assessment, i.e. temporal behaviour of background noise and statistics of X-ray affected pixels of the CCD chip. We do not find any indication of a permanent quality degradation of the CCD chip after 28 hour X-ray exposure.