The diffusion of percutaneous procedures under fluoroscopic guidance has raised the question of excessive radiation exposure to the patient and to the interventional radiology personnel. In order to give an answer to this question we prospectively evaluated the radiation doses received by the operator's hands, lens, thyroid, and gonads during 243 percutaneous cholangiographies and transhepatic biliary drainages. The absorbed dose was measured with calibrated lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeters applied to the skin (hands, neck, forehead, and gonads). The range of absorbed doses to the four areas was: from 0.013 to 0.219 mGy for the hands, from 0.011 to 0.027 mGy for the thyroid, from 0.007 to 0.019 mGy for the lens; the gonads dose was not measurable due to the dosimeter being placed behind the lead apron. The radiation dose employed during our biliary interventional procedures is higher than that of selective visceral angiography, but lower than that of PTA. On the basis of our data, a radiologist could perform about 2777 PTCs, or 1718 percutaneous biliary drainages, per annum, without exceeding the ICRP dose limits.