Due to the high single fraction doses employed in intraoperative radiotherapy, it is important to minimize areas of high dose. These areas arise due to the scattering relationship between the photon collimators and the applicator system. They may be non-symmetric due to either an asymmetric applicator design, or to manufacturing tolerances of the applicator system resulting in the center of the applicator to be slightly different than the central ray of the accelerator. These dose distributions can be optimized to predetermined criteria by the use of an optimum field size for each combination of applicator and electron energy. The use of asymmetric collimators can further correct for nonuniformity in the dose distribution due to asymmetric design, applicator bevel angle, or applicator mis-alignment.
