Children centered care: Minimizing the need for anesthesia with a multi-faceted concept for MRI in children aged 4–6

Purpose: To evaluate the need for general anesthesia (GA) in MRI in children aged 4–6 years, using a multi-faceted concept, Children Centered Care (CCC), compared to a standard setup. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study of 81 children, we developed and tested a multi-faceted concept, CCC, for MRI in children aged 4–6 without GA, comparing it to a standard setup. The CCC included: 1) an interactive app, 2) a trained pediatric team, 3) a children's lounge with a toy-scanner, and 4) a child-friendly multimedia environment in the MRI room. Patients were included from February-September 2016 and 2017. The use of GA was evaluated, image quality was assessed and a cost-benefit analysis was done. Results: We included 40 children in the control group and 41 in the CCC group. Mean age was 5.8 years and 48 (59%) were males. Neuro and orthopedic imaging accounted for 58 (72%) and 22 (27%), respectively. With the CCC setup 39/41 (95%) completed a diagnostic MRI without GA compared to 17/40 (43%) in the control group (p < 0.001). Image quality was not different between the groups (p = 0.37). The setup proved cost-effective with a payback time of two years in a Danish setting with 250 eligible patients per year. Conclusion: With the multi-faceted concept CCC, the use of GA for MRI in children aged 4–6 was markedly reduced to 5%, image quality was maintained and the setup was cost-effective.