American Society of Anesthesiologists Releases New Recommendations for Anesthesia During MRI

Newswise — As healthcare technology continues to advance, physicians in medical specialties are taking necessary steps to ensure that all patients are provided safe care throughout procedures for diagnosis and treatment. Recognizing the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite as a potentially hazardous location that may pose challenges for anesthetic administration and patient care decisions, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has developed a new "Practice Advisory on Anesthetic Care for Magnetic Resonance Imaging," that can be found in the March 2009 journal Anesthesiology.

In this advisory, anesthetic care for MRI includes moderate sedation, deep sedation and general anesthesia, as well as ventilator or critical care support.

Advisories developed by ASA are systematically developed reports that are intended to assist decision making in areas of patient care. They are not intended as standards, guidelines or absolute requirements and they may be adopted, modified or rejected according to clinical needs or constraints.

"The anesthetic care of patients undergoing MRI procedures has evolved differently across the wide variety of practices based on local facility design, equipment availability and individual preferences" , said Mark Singleton, M.D., co-chair of the ASA Task Force on Anesthetic Care for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. "The significance of this advisory is that it provides common important considerations for every practice."

Primary findings of the advisory are summarized in "advisory statements" focused on the areas of:"¢ Education"¢ Screening for Anesthetic Care Providers and Ancillary Support Personnel"¢ Patient Screening, (Patient and Equipment related Risks)"¢ Preparation"¢ Patient Monitoring during MRI "¢ Postprocedure Care.

"It is crucial that all in the MRI suite, especially anesthesiologists are prepared to administer safe patient care during MRI procedures which are often performed on patients in critical care situations that require special consideration," Dr. Singleton added.

Full text of the "Practice Advisory on Anesthetic Care of Magnetic Resonance Imaging" can be found on the Web sites for Anesthesiology, www.anesthesiology.org and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, www.asahq.org.

Anesthesiologists: Physicians providing the lifeline of modern medicine. Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists is an educational, research and scientific association with 43,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology and improve the care of the patient.

For more information visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists Web site at www.asahq.org.