Advantages of one-day hospitalization for sedation in MRI

Abstract

Pediatric patients often need sedation because they cannot understand and cooperate with the examination. Especially, infants and young children have to stay still during MRI examination and always need sedation. Sedative drugs influence general conditions such as respiration and circulation. Committee of the Japan Pediatric Society, the Japanese Society of Pediatric Anesthesiology, and the Japanese Society of Pediatric Radiology published “Recommendations on Pediatric Sedation for MRI Examination” in 2013 and its revised edition in 2020. We decided to manage sedation of pediatric patients undergoing MRI examination under one-day hospitalization. The safety of MRI examination improved by monitoring vital signs in a hospital ward and the dosage of sedative drugs was reduced due to being in a calm single room. On the other hand, some patients awoke during waiting or moving to an examination room after they were sedated with sedative drugs. Issues such as cooperation with the radiology technicians should be resolved. The medical fee increased from 3000 to 4000 points.