Anesthesia Practice in Pediatric Radiation Oncology: Mayo Clinic Arizona's Experience 2014-2016

Understanding the goals of targeted radiation therapy in pediatrics is critical to developing high quality and safe anesthetic plans in this patient population. An ideal anesthetic plan includes allaying anxiety and achieving optimal immobilization, while ensuring rapid and efficient recovery.

We conducted a retrospective chart review of children receiving anesthesia for radiation oncology procedures from 1/1/2014 to 7/31/2016. No anesthetics were excluded from the analysis. The electronic anesthesia records were analyzed for perianesthetic complications along with efficiency data. To compare our results to past and current data, we identified relevant medical literature covering a period from 1984-2017.

A total of 997 anesthetic procedures were delivered in 58 unique patients. The vast majority of anesthetics were single-agent anesthesia with propofol. The average duration of radiation treatment was 13.24 min. The average duration of anesthesia was 37.81 min, and the average duration to meet discharge criteria in the recovery room was 29.50 min. There were seven instances of perianesthetic complications (0.7%) and no complications noted for the 80 CT simulations. Two of the seven complications occurred in patients receiving total body irradiation.

The 5-year survival rate for pediatric cancers has improved greatly in part due to more effective and targeted radiation therapy. Providing an anesthetic with minimal complications is critical for successful daily radiation treatment. The results of our data analysis corroborate other contemporary studies showing minimal risk to patients undergoing radiation therapy under general anesthesia with propofol.

Our data reveal that single-agent anesthesia with propofol administered by a dedicated anesthesia team is safe and efficient and should be considered for patients requiring multiple radiation treatments under anesthesia.