Hypnosis instead of general anaesthesia in paediatric radiotherapy: report of three cases

This report proposes hypnosis as a valid alternative to general anaesthesia for immobilisation and set-up in certain cases in paediatric radiotherapy.

We report three cases of children who underwent radiotherapy in 1994 and were treated using hypnosis for set-up during irradiation. The first and the second were two cases of macroscopic resection of cerebellar medulloblastoma in which craniospinal irradiation was necessary, while the third patient suffered of an endorbitary relapse of retinoblastoma previously treated with bilateral enucleation, radiotherapy and chemotherapy; in this last situation the child needed radiation as palliative therapy. Hypnosis was used during treatment to obtain the indispensable immobility. Hypnotic conditioning was obtained by our expert psychotherapist while the induction during every single treatment was made by the clinician, whose voice was presented to the children during the conditioning.

Every single fraction of the radiation therapy was delivered in hypnosis and without the need for narcosis.

Hypnosis may be useful in particular situations to prepare paediatric cancer patients during irradiation, when lack of child collaboration might necessitate the use of general anaesthesia and when anaesthesia itself is not possible.