Retrospective analysis of anesthesia applications with magnetic resonance imaging

Objective: Because it is a semi-enclosed environment, the process takes a long time, the noises from equipments and requires complete immobility the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) requires some anesthesia during the procedure in adolescents and adults, especially with children. Material and Methods: Following the approval of the local ethics committee, anesthesia records were reviewed retrospectively of 1.008 patients whom underwent diagnostic MRI procedure and required sedation between the years 2006-2012. What type of anesthesia is applied for the patients’ according to their age and gender and what kind of adverse effects occured during the process were examined. Results: When patients complication status were analysied retrospective according to their age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists and mallampati, there was no significant difference (p>0.05). Following the procedure, patients' heart rate and oxygen saturation levels were significantly increased when compared with before the procedure (p<0.05). When for 23.1% of the patients, airway control ensured with mask/cannula, the other 76.9% needed laryngeal mask. Late recovery after sedation was higher while implementation of the laryngeal mask for the airway control (p<0.05). When the distribution of complications in patients were analyzed: 826 (81,9%) no complications, 97 (9,6%) nausea and vomiting, 60 (6,0%) late recovery, 17 (1,7%) desaturation, 8 (0,8%) bradycardia were identified in patients. Late recovery was higher in patients with longer duration of action in this study. When complications related to a given sedative agents were analysied, nausea and vomiting was observed lesser extent in patients who used propofol (p<0.05). Conclusion: Before the procedure, patients should be evaluated in terms of anesthesia and appropriate anesthesia methods should be selected for each patient and MRI-compatible anesthesia machine and monitors should be used to complete MRI safely with negligible side effects. Also anesthesia for MRI applications is necessary to be done by an experienced team who has good knowledge for drugs effects and side-effect profile. Copyright © 2018 by Türkiye Klinikleri.