Empowering Children Through Virtual Reality: A New Alternative to General Anesthesia for MRI

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Radiology
• Medical Simulation
• Virtual Reality Applications

Background:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) often necessitates general anesthesia in pediatric patients.
• Anesthesia for pediatric MRI poses risks, increases healthcare costs, and extends scan scheduling delays.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) simulations in preparing children for MRI scans, aiming for awake procedures.
• To evaluate the impact of VR on child anxiety levels and the correlation between simulation movement and MRI scan quality.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study involving 18 pediatric participants who completed a 10-minute VR MRI simulation before their scan.
• Anxiety levels were measured using surveys pre-simulation and post-MRI for both children and caregivers.
• VR software tracked head motion during simulation, which was analyzed against MRI scan quality.

Main Results:

• All 18 participants completed awake MRI scans post-simulation, facilitating clinical diagnoses.
• MRI scan quality was rated as excellent or acceptable in 94.4% of cases.
• No significant change in child anxiety was noted, but 94.1% of caregivers found the VR simulation effective.

Conclusions:

• VR simulations enabled successful pediatric MRI scans without anesthesia, improving caregiver confidence.
• While anxiety reduction was not statistically significant, VR facilitated diagnostic-quality imaging with minimal motion artifacts.
• VR is a valuable tool for preparing children for MRI, reducing the need for sedation.